How do you become a barrister? Why do only 1 per cent of those who study law get to join this mysterious profession? If it's so great, how come you work 100-hour weeks for less than minimum wage? And why might someone feel the need to reveal the lies, secrets, failures and crisis at the heart of this world of wigs and gowns?

Part-memoir, part-diary, this book charts an outsider's progress through the winding paths of practising at the Bar, taking in the absurd traditions of the Inns of Court, where every meal mandates a glass of port and a toast to the Queen, to the Hunger Games contest for pupillage, through the endlessly eye-opening and disappointing experience of being a working junior barrister - up to the point where they decide this can't go on, something must change . . .

Full of hilarious, heart-breaking, shocking, personal and surprising stories from their working life, this confessional book about the Secret Barrister's journey from being an austerity-supporting, Conservative-voting twenty-something to a campaigning, bestselling author whose writing in defence of the law is celebrated around the globe. More than that, it's about why you should change your mind when the facts don't support your views, how the real life of a revered profession can be anything but what it seems from the outside and how the things our justice system gets wrong are not the things most people expect.