"Written first as a smash-hit play in the West End starring Jodie Comer, this novel continues the conversation about power and patriarchy. An incredible, courageous debut."
Tessa Ensler is a brilliant defence barrister. She came from nothing and fought tooth and nail to get to where she is. The Scouse accent she brought to Luton with her when her mum moved them from Liverpool lingers. Does she mask her accent or does it just soften automatically? She educated herself out of her old world, via Cambridge no less, but it takes more than brains to belong in this new world. The best of the best, she's now in the tough world of criminal law, where they ride the lifts up to the criminal courts, trained and ready, wired like racehorses. Poised. Nimble. And ready to charge.
The words from her first lecture at Cambridge ring in her ears and drive her to success, submerging her inferiority complex: "You are not friends, you’re fighting each other and the game starts now. Out of those of you who even make it to the bar (which will be 1 in 3), only 1 in 10 of you will get pupillage, and only 5 of those might get silk. Only one has the chance of being a judge each decade. Don’t trust what you think you know, this is not life. This is law." Although she was not from one of the families.
And blimey what a cut-throat world it is. She chose defence because she believes in protecting people. She is the one who leads the way through this strange system and puts them on a path to freedom. She doesn't choose her cases, they choose her. It's the rules and they make sure everyone gets fair representation in court. Criminal barristers are about fighting for those who need you, standing up for the underprivileged. It’s about human rights. As a barrister, you are just a voice for hire, you are just a spokesperson offering a version of a story to the court. It’s the jury, the community who decide what to believe.
She spent years at the bar, like all other women, conducting certain acts of subterfuge, small acts of rebellion. They had been excluded for so long, having for years watched men assume superior intellect, without any heed to the exclusion of women, of people of colour, or those from working-class backgrounds. In spite of all of the challenges to get there, it's all rosy, until one day it isn't. And her world crashes down.
It's a game of two halves. Before and after. 782 days later and Tessa is back to the Old Bailey, which she loved: the privilege, the aura, the smell. But this time she's not running a case. It’s the day of the trial, one alleged perpetrator, and one alleged victim accused, and complainant - herself. She is there and she is going to see this through until the end because the law is the thing that gave her everything. It gave her choice and an opportunity to fight for justice. She just needs to prove that and find justice. It’s hard for her as a defence barrister to be a witness for the prosecution. Especially when she is no longer who she used to be. She is damaged. She is scared. She is terrorised.
This is an incredible story. Aside from awards, this story has affected people, and effected change, including: changing the law in the UK regarding what juries are directed to consider when they deliberate on rape cases (there are words directly from the play that have been incorporated into that direction). Judges in Northern Ireland must now view a film of the play in their training to be judges; a group of barristers have set up the TESSA project (The Examination of Serious Sexual Assault) to change laws around the lived experiences of women and rape victims, and three thousand police officers in North Yorkshire had a screening of the filmed play followed by discussion.
A woman’s experience of sexual assault does not fit to the male define system of truth, so it cannot be truth, and therefore there cannot be justice. And the law must change. We must do better because the truth is that one and three women are sexually assaulted and we need to know they have a chance of being believed so that we know justice can be done.
This is a powerful book showing the importance of story-telling. To change behaviour. To change convention. To change the conversation. To change law. We must all fight for what we believe in. Thank you Suzie Miller for leading this charge and forcing the broken rules to be renegotiated. Bravo.
| Primary Genre | Political / Legal Thrillers |
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