A bit of a rest day from the Book Festival today, as I took time out to spend with a friend, and we went off to the Film Festival together.So this morning I went to an author event with Lady Brenda Hale—she of the famous spider brooch and autobiography aptly named Spider Woman. Today’s event was about her book With The Law On Our Side. It was chaired by Dr Claire Mitchell KC, who, of course, has relevant experience in the law. She seemed entranced by the book, as well as by Lady Hale herself and took us through all three sections, asking Lady Hale to elaborate on some of the sections she enjoyed the most as a reader.
Brenda Hale is a feisty, funny, and I suspect formidable woman, but nevertheless self-deprecating and modest. She seemed extremely likeable and down-to-earth.
Spider Brooches and Legal Realities: Inside ‘With The Law On Our Side’
It was fascinating hearing her talk about high-profile cases and how the law might have answers, but they are not always straightforward and very often open to interpretation. She gave examples of where the law must be upheld, even when the consequences are detrimental to the very people it is meant to be protecting. Rarely easy was my takeaway.
She, of course, was wearing a spider brooch and told the story of the famous one, recounting how often people suggested that the brooches—of which she has many—were sending out specific signals. ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave’ was, I suppose, not surprising.
“Brenda Hale is a feisty, funny, and I suspect formidable woman, but nevertheless self-deprecating and modest. She seemed extremely likeable and down-to-earth.“
Apparently Lady Hale has a lot of brooches and most of them are of creatures of one sort and another and she tends to feel they have minds of their own when it comes to deciding which dress or outfit they would be best placed on—and THAT spider chose THAT dress. Lady Hale merely chose the dress, albeit with great consideration.
Trailblazing in Law: ‘One Ambition at a Time’
Hearing about her early life and ‘careers guidance’ at school—‘not clever enough’ was one opinion—was fascinating and to know that, despite being one of only 6 women on a law course of about 100 students, she really doesn’t feel that was a disadvantage. Her explanation is that she really didn’t know how few women took up careers in the law back in the early 60s, so she couldn’t worry about something she didn’t even realise.
‘One ambition at a time’ is a fabulous credo she shared with the audience and reeled through the ‘one step at a time’ career achievements, making it all sound so easy.
At the beginning Claire Mitchell had listed all the ‘firsts’ that Brenda Hale has achieved but judiciously added that Lady Hale had advised her that there were plenty of ‘seconds’ too, which were just as important. Lady Hale enumerated them and gave thanks to those trailblazing women who had been the ‘firsts’ before her—and praised them for not closing the drawbridge behind them either.
She’s generous and grateful as well as an entertaining speaker. I don’t think I was the only one in the audience who could have listened to her all day long.
Only one show for me today, but an absolutely brilliant one.
Featured Image: Brenda Hale – Author Pic – Edinburgh International Book Festival – provided by Festival PR.
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