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Description
The lawyers who raised this toast at a London dinner in 1756 must surely have been reading advance copies of The Law's Strangest Cases. Here, in this riotously entertaining collection of true stories, are tales so bizarre, amusing, shocking and utterly ludicrous that even the most sober judge would be impelled to lift his glass in agreement.
Take a seat in the public gallery and witness the trial that was wound up because the entire court was rendered helpless with laughter. Hear the final fateful squawks of Polly, the only dead parrot ever to give evidence. Take your place on the bench to look straight into the evil eyes of Harold Shipman, and discover why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a far better detective than Sherlock Holmes. Then join the jury to decide the most indigestible question in legal history: if you'd been shipwrecked 2,000 miles from home, would you have eaten Parker the cabin boy?
Meanwhile, make sure His Lordship doesn't drop a stitch on his knitting, fall asleep during a murder trial, decide a sentence on the toss of a coin, get his wig stolen, or sign important court papers 'Snow White'- because he will,unless you keep an eye on him.
Peter Seddon brings the endless fascination of all matters legal (and illegal) to the written page, with all the wit and style of an award-winning author. The hundreds of hugely entertaining true stories make The Law's Strangest Cases irresistible reading from start to finish.
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Contents
The Strangest Case of All Time? (AD 33)
Lady Marion's Ordeal (1207)
A Champion's Unseemly End (1220)
So Whose Ox Is It, Anyway? (1292)
The Accused Have Gone to Ground (1519)
An Imaginative Confession (1590)
A Delayed Decision (1613)
Jury v. Bench (1670)
A Touch of the Blarney (1671)
Well, I'll be Hanged! (1705)
Morrison Hears It All (1721)
Maggie's Reprieve (1724)
And The Winner Is ... (1746)
A Fish Out of Water (1776)
A Unique Assassination (1812)
Eleven Just Men and Wilson (1838)
A New Line of Enquiry (1845)
No, No, No, No, No ... Yes (1853)
The Eleventh Witness (1855)
Bar Talk (1860)
Sweet Fanny Adams (1867)
The Voice of Conscience (1869)
Way Out West (1882)
Man's Best Friend? (1883)
There's Always Parker (1884)
Three-Times-Lucky Lee (1885)
A Shocking Affair (1890)
A Unique Discovery (1892)
In the Footsteps of Sweeney Todd (1897)
A Theatrical Performance (1898)
Rough Justice (1903)
Elementary, My Dear Holmes! (1903)
A Man Ahead of His Time (1905)
Murder by Request (1919)
Monkey Business (1925)
Once Pickled, Forever Toasted (1928)
The Worst Criminal of All Time (1930)
A Clerical Error (1932)
A Self-Inflicted Wound (1933)
Most Unsavoury Evidence (1935)
Death of a Sweet Old Lady (1944)
A Dose of 111 Fortune (1947)
Capstick Makes an Impression (1948)
A Suspended Suspended Sentence (1948)
No Half-Measures (1959)
Let's Hear It For Parliament (1960)
Trial of a Lady (1960)
A Very Quiet Tenant (1960)
Mistaken Identity (1963)
The Full Monty (1964)
Mind Your Language (1970)
A Moving Experience (1970)
A Very Vexing Sexing (1970)
A Question of Entry (1971)
A Sound (Asleep?) Verdict (1971)
Careers Advice (1971)
What a Difference a Day Makes (1972)
An Uncommonly Violent Protest (1972)
Straight Talk At Last (1972)
What is the Verdict? (1973)
A Fruitless Wait (1974)
Divorce at the Double (1975)
The Truth, Partly the Truth and Everything But the Truth (1975)
Where There's a Will There's a Way (1977)
A Note of Caution (1978)
Jungle Juice (1978)
Spelling It Out (1979)
A Picture Paints a Thousand Words (1980)
Disposing of the Evidence (1980)
An Educational Visit (1981)
A Proper Charlie (1981)
Good Old Grandad (1981)
More Questions Than Answers (1981)
I've Got Your Face! (1981)
Eight out of Ten Cats Prefer Hilda (1982)
A Committed Drinker (1982)
He Just Wouldn't Stand For It (1982)
The Laws of Chance (1982)
One Case Too Many (1983)
Carry On the Buses (1984)
Innocent of an Impossible Crime (1985)
It's Uncle Morris! (1986)
Not So Dumb Witness (1987)
The Icing on the Cake (1988)
The Most Desperate Appeal Ever (1988)
Dumb Witness (1989) 2
Cusack's Law (1989)
The Shocking Affair of the Rolled Umbrella (1990)
A Bad Day at the Office (1990)
An Unexpected Stretch (1992)
A Knife-and-Fork Job (1992)
The Accused is Free to Crow (1992)
A Symbolic Crime (1992)
Caught in the Act (1992)
When Is a Beach Not a Beach? (1993)
Acting in Self-Defence (1993)
David v.Goliath (1997)
A Comedy of Errors (1998)
Silence in Court (1999)
www.sendhimdown.co.uk (1999)
Heartily Sick of the Law (1999)
Trust Me, I'm a Doctor (1999)
The Scales of Justice (2000)
The Birthday Suit Lawsuit (2001)
Call Brendan Michael Forrester (2001) Twenty-First-Century Justice (2001)
A Happy Ending (2001)
Selected Bibliography
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