This collection of essays possesses two curiosities: first, the essays derive their origin from a multi-faceted practice as a lawyer in public fora; second, the author’s aim to influence the reader on law and moral issues. First, if the essays are not, strictly speaking, polymathic, some come from a professional career that extended to activities outside the legal system, such as public inquiries and scribblings on public administration and media activities. From 1987 until retirement from practising law in 2004, I never appeared as an advocate in the courtroom, but was engaged in a range of public inquiries, ending with the needlessly expensive inquiry into Bloody Sunday. By then I had encompassed a career of rare extent – journalist, lawyer, penal reformer and public inquirer and broadcaster, never without the wig and pen. My range of activities, by any standards, was expansive. I began practice at the Bar in 1952, a civil law practitioner of modest aims; it lacked any venture into the criminal courts, yet I made their nodding acquaintance through my lobbying for the abolition of capital punishment in 1965 and indulging in penal affairs through the Howard League for Penal Reform. This led to my first public appointment, as a member of the Home Secretary’s Advisory Council on the Penal System (1966–78). The emerging vision of a civilised penal system was accompanied by an interest in criminA? ology and a post lecturing to aspiring social workers at Bedford College, University of London (1961–81).