Ross Harper: Beyond Reasonable Doubt

A Memoir

Ross Harper

• Publisher: Black & White Publishing
• Year: 2016
• Topic: Law
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785300943
• Subtopic: Law Biographies
• Index: Law

Throughout his glittering career, Ross Harper was a major figure in Scottish law, politics, journalism and business. He was a key player in many of Scotland's most high-profile legal cases from the 1960s to the 1990s, including the Albany Drugs Case and the Glasgow Rape Case, after having ambitiously set up his own firm while still in his mid-twenties. He was President of the Law Society of Scotland and the International Bar Association, received numerous commendations for his work and acted as a political consultant for big businesses such as William Hill. He has also been active in politics throughout his adult life, campaigning tirelessly for the Conservative Party from the 1970s onwards.
Harper's work, viewpoints and high profile have, inevitably, exposed him to difficult situations and brought him no shortage of rivals and enemies. And he's had his fair share of run-ins with the media too. His work has also introduced him to a wide variety of people in positions of power on all sides of the political and social spectrum, including Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, John Smith and Nelson Mandela.
Now, after a life in the spotlight, Ross Harper offers deeply personal views on the law, business and journalism, examining the roots of his career and the lifelong values of his upbringing in Glasgow during the Second World War. He shares the secrets of his success and shows how he has balanced an astonishingly busy professional life with a lifelong passion for fishing and his position as a devoted family man. This is the story of one of the major figures in Scottish life of the past fifty years, told with the warmth, humour and candour that those who know him would expect.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Childhood
• 2 Schooldays
• 3 University
• 4 Early Years
• 5 Expansion
• 6 Love & Marriage
• 7 Strathclyde University
• 8 Politics
• 9 The Coffin in the Clyde
• 10 The Albany Drugs Case
• 11 Rotary Tools
• 12 The Glasgow Rape Case
• 13 Media
• 14 Court Martials - Colonel Harper
• 15 More Trials & Tribulations
• 16 Judges & Sheriffs
• 17 Life at the Top
• 18 Delegation
• 19 Political Friends
• 20 Scottish Coal
• 21 Still Working in a Coal Mine
• 22 Africa
• 23 Accidents Will Happen
• 24 Bridge
• 25 A Lifetime of Fishing
• 26 Art for Art's Sake
• 27 Vices
• 28 Children & Grandchildren
• 29 Reflections