Stephen Smith does for the Rotherham legal system in the Eighties what James Alfred Wight (aka James Herriot) did for Vets in the 40’s and 50’s. At times hilarious, at times tragic and just bizarre for the rest of it his memoir of the mainly lowlife of this Northern town is a easy and entertaining read.
When Steve and his partner Wilf set up their legal practice, they aren’t expecting the high life – 1980s Rotherham Magistrate’s Court is no Old Bailey. But they aren’t expecting quite such weird and wonderful lowlifes, either…
Boozers, Ballcocks & Bail is the first of larger-than-life criminal lawyer Steve Smith’s comic series. He recounts with gusto his sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic and sometimes plain bizarre experiences both inside and outside the criminal justice system, and the colourful characters he meets along the way. From incurably larcenous but oddly likeable Jack Heptenstall to high-class hooker Suzi Deville and the Bird Man of Rotherham – not to mention Spider, Pagey and an incontinent chimpanzee – Steve depicts human nature in all its variety .
'Guaranteed to lift your spirits and make you laugh out loud’ Gervase Phinn
'The legal James Herriot' Yorkshire Post
‘This book celebrates human values over gimmicky plotlines’
– Good Book Guide (October 2006 )
'Rotherham's answer to Rumpole' - The Times Magazine (October 2006)
Author
About Stephen D Smith
After entering the profession ‘by default’, Steve Smith worked his way up from office boy’s assistant (‘my first job was to blow up a rugby ball for the senior partner’s son’) to co-founder of the criminal law practice Wilford Smith, based in Rotherham in South Yorkshire.
Boozers, Ballcocks & Bail – the first book in Steve’s comic legal series - was originally self-published, and said to be ‘the most shoplifted book in Yorkshire.’
A professional public speaker in his spare time, Steve is married with a daughter and lives in Rotherham. He was awarded an MBE in the 2006 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his services to charity, and is president of Rotherham Town Cricket Club.
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