Draft Novel

Having looked again at  my autobiography The Wandering Soul especially as regards work at two solicitors' firms over many years,  there seemed to be a gap in the overcrowded literary market. 

I am still seeking a publisher so if any publishers read this blog and are interested, please let me know by posting a comment on this blogpost.

Given the the UK is apparently the country with the most literary authors per  head of population in the world, finding a gap in the book market encouraged me to write a novel. The draft novel is now finished and its title  of  Trainee Solicitors’ Loves, Lives and Tribulations  perhaps identifies the perceived gap.

The draft forward, which is reproduced below, further illustrates not only the gap but also the  discrimination  possibly unconscious, against  women and ethnic minorities in the solicitors' profession that there used to be, from the Law Society down to individual firms.  Doubtless such discrimination still exists in places but certainly by the time of my retirement a few  years back, discrimination by legal offices was not widespread certainly not as it was in 1972 when I was first employed as a trainee. The Law Society has of course for many years  been concerned not to discriminate.

The draft Author's Note reads:

                                          Author's Note

My late mother, Ms Jennie Hawthorne, wrote several works of non-fiction but also when she was rather younger than I am now, two works of fiction. The latter currently out of print, were written for children so a work at this time, for adults seemed to be more apt for myself.

Having practised as a trainee then called an articled clerk, at an old firm previously known as Witham Weld, in London SW1, from 1972, qualifying as a solicitor in 1974; a partner from 1975, then some forty years later transferring to Farrer & Co in London’s Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 2014, as a consultant, and finally, retiring in 2016, writing a novel about trainees’ lives, loves and work, at and away from, law firms seemed apt.

The main character in the novel is young lady trainee, partly to remove the possibility that any former client might wonder if he or she is being described in the work. Having attended an all boys’ boarding school until the age of 18, I expect that many women reading this novel, will be amused at the undoubted mis-statements about ladies’ lives that may be in the story, for any of which, I must apologise.

In my early days in law as a trainee or articled clerk, there was undoubtedly discrimination against candidates from ethnic minorities seeking careers as solicitors, both in London and in the country. In my own firm though, I recall another person applying for a similar trainee solicitor’s post to that which I had just accepted. He had an English sounding name and was offered an interview. Essentially the interviewing partners then  appeared to believe that rejecting his application would be too obviously discriminatory, so he was offered and accepted the post. That proved excellent for the firm where he was the first ethnic minority trainee to be employed, myself as we became good friends and indeed for the trainee himself, who later went on to become Attorney General at his home country in the Caribbean.

Comparing the life of a young lady trainee at a small firm in a country village, with that of a young man trainee at a large town firm which has an office in the City, will I trust be of interest to those in most solicitors’ firms and as importantly, those weighing up the possibility of becoming lawyers themselves. However, the novel may intrigue many readers beyond the law.

Legal life and work have hugely changed over the past forty or fifty years and possibly, nearly all lawyers these days must specialise rather earlier than they did when I was a trainee in the 1970s. However, the difference today between life and work in city firms as well as of course the salaries at such firms, and those in legal practices  elsewhere, seems as large as ever, hence my selection. 

Hopefully the work will be published in due course. If so I will post about the  draft novel once more.