Robert Shiels

George Craig (1783-1843) made his living as a lawyer, banker and land agent, through judging the character and credit of others, and he was immersed in the local community. He had a social conscience through his dealings with the parish poor, and he was also the treasurer of the Galashiels Savings B

Brian Jenkins is the latest writer to consider Madeleine Smith, who, he opines, was in many respects a less than appealing figure, although she has never wanted for biographers. A brief glance at a few bibliographies suggests that this is the 23rd book on the case, as well as many dedicated chapters

From the Second World War the dynamics of the vast overseas empire of the United Kingdom began to change, although certain former colonies had gained significant powers before then. The end of the empire, in the sense of complete political and legal independence, came about very quickly in the late

The idea of the public interest and the desirability of a fatal accident inquiry developed and appeared in new law at the end of the 19th century. Heavy industrial occupations, and other sorts of similar manual work with inherent dangers might have been thought to be the basis of attention for the l

Autocracy, Inc is a small book, with a dark paper cover, that sets out in disturbing detail the attacks, overt and covert, by autocrats everywhere on liberal democracies and open societies. The concept of autocracy is where one person governs with all the power, and that is defined by the author as

Many of the earlier books on famous crimes may require to be revisited, and this comprehensive new book by Halle Rubenhold demonstrates why. A standard description of the events of and around Dr Crippen’s activities constituted "one of the most infamous murders of the twentieth century".

‘County lines’ is a sub-genre, but not a lesser one, of the lucrative business involving controlled drugs. It is constituted by goods being moved from across police and other domestic boundaries. The transportation is sometimes (although not always) by children, vulnerable people or othe

The public must surely wish to have a comprehensive narrative of the course of conduct by a medically qualified person resulting in the deaths of many babies, and they have it with this book. The shock of the whole scenario is not of a fanciful or unique set of circumstances, regrettably, as similar

John Hill Burton was an advocate from 1831 and he became a significant figure in nineteenth century Scottish thought. His contribution is reassessed in this impressive study by an independent scholar. Burton’s practice may not have amounted to much, and in 1854 he was appointed secretary to th

The study of crime in a specific area is hardly a new idea: famously, Jack House wrote The Square Mile of Murder, which has its own Wikipedia page, about four classics of the genre in Glasgow. Neither is the study of crime in wartime a new idea, as can be seen in the bibliography to this new contrib

The "story of law’s reasonable person" is one that has "many beginnings and no end", according to Professor Valentin Jeutner, of Lund University, Sweden. Identifying the concept of such a person is not an easy task, given, as the professor discovered, there are over 250 statutes and 10,000 cou

Events previously known as the ‘English Civil War’ are now given different titles because of a general recognition by historians that separate events elsewhere collectively constituted a single entity. Some historians have described events as ‘The British Civil Wars’. The war

The purportedly whole story of the grim events at 10 Rillington Place, London has been offered to the public in different forms over the years but what version is complete, and separately, an accurate one? It is not difficult to see why the appalling events there draw in new commentators with each g

Robert Shiels completes his look at the life of Sir Thomas Thornton LLD. Thornton also interested himself in the field of education, as clerk to the school board gave him an intimate knowledge of the various education acts. He was consulted by Miss Baxter and Dr Boyd Baxter about the establishment o

Robert Shiels looks in two parts at the life of Sir Thomas Thornton, LLD, solicitor, Dundee, to whom the law firm Thorntons traces its roots. There was a time when solicitors were often referred to as writers, procurators, law agents or advocates (as in Aberdeen) and also more simply as men of busin