Get Carman

In court with George Carman QC, Britain's most feared lawyer – The man behind the advocate

Karen Phillipps

• Publisher: Biteback Publishing
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781785909528
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Law Biographies
• Index: Law

George Carman QC was, and perhaps still is, Britain's most famous lawyer within living memory. Equally feared and respected, he made his name as an erudite and incisive advocate largely in the field of libel. Coming to prominence with his superb defence of disgraced former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe on a charge of conspiracy to murder, Carman subsequently defended many well-known faces from the worlds of entertainment, sport, politics and business, including Ken Dodd, Richard Branson and Elton John.

Away from court, Carman was a complex and private yet not unsociable man. In 1986, he met barrister Karen Phillipps and, although she turned down his immediate marriage proposal, the two would have a close platonic relationship for the rest of Carman's life.

Carman intended to write his memoirs but became too ill to complete the book and died in 2001. Using his papers, press cuttings and court transcripts – along with the testimonies of some of those who saw him in action and her own extensive memories of her close friend –Phillipps presents a portrait of this eminent advocate through the cases that made him famous. All the drama of the courtroom world that Carman belonged to is here, along with some of the best and most entertaining theatre the English justice system has ever seen.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter One: In His Own Words: The First Three Chapters of George Carman’s Unfinished Autobiography
• Chapter Two: R v. Jeremy Thorpe
• Chapter Three: R v. Dr Leonard Arthur
• Chapter Four: R v. Geoffrey Prime
• Chapter Five: Crimes of Passion
• Chapter Six: R v. Ken Dodd
• Chapter Seven: Sonia Sutcliffe v. News of the World
• Chapter Eight: Sporting Legends
• Chapter Nine: Jani Allan v. Channel 4
• Chapter Ten: The Virgin King: Two Cases Involving Richard Branson
• Chapter Eleven: Elton John v. Mirror Group Newspapers
• Chapter Twelve: Gillian Taylforth v. The Sun
• Chapter Thirteen: Jonathan Aitken v. The Guardian
• Chapter Fourteen: Rugby and Football: The Cases of Lawrence Dallaglio and Bruce Grobbelaar
• Chapter Fifteen: Neil Hamilton v. Mohamed Al Fayed
• Chapter Sixteen: Retirement
• Chapter Seventeen: Illness and Death
• Conclusion
• Appendix A: Paxman v. Carman
• Appendix B: James Price QC on George Carman
• Appendix C: Lord Alexander’s Memorial Speech
• Appendix D: Veronica Varney’s Memories of George Carman
• Acknowledgements
• Index
• Copyright