Anyone who thinks lawyers are boring should read this book. Desmond de Silva has outfought, outwitted, outdined and outdrunk everyone, from warlords, criminal dictators, Hollywood stars and top footballers to major political figures and serial murderers. It reads like a real-life thriller.

In his foreword Julian Fellowes, who has known de Silva for thirty years, recounts how his friend, as the first British QC to be appointed chief prosecutor at a case before an international war crimes tribunal, succeeded in bringing to justice Charles Taylor, the notoriously corrupt president of