Lord Jeremy Hutchinson QC (Estate)

Jeremy Hutchinson was born in London in 1915. He read PPE at Magdalen College, Oxford, before studying law and going on to become the greatest criminal barrister of the 1960s, '70s and '80s. Jeremy's skill as a cross-examiner soon became legendary; it is said that he provided a partial inspiration for John Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey. He retired from the bar in 1984.

In Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories, Thomas Grant QC provides a definitive account of Jeremy Hutchinson's life and work. From the sex and spying scandals which contributed to Harold Macmillan's resignation in 1963 and the subsequent fall of the Conservative government, to the fight against literary censorship through his defence of Lady Chatterley's Lover and Fanny Hill, Hutchinson was involved in many of the great trials of the period. He defended George Blake, Christine Keeler, Great Train robber Charlie Wilson, Kempton Bunton (the only man successfully to 'steal' a picture from the National Gallery), art 'faker' Tom Keating, and Howard Marks who, in a sensational defence, was acquitted of charges relating to the largest importation of cannabis in British history. He also prevented the suppression of Bernardo Bertolucci's notorious film Last Tango in Paris and did battle with Mary Whitehouse when she prosecuted the director of the play Romans in Britain.

Thomas Grant QC is a practising barrister and author. He lives in Sussex and London.