Out of Print
He was known as an independent, humane, learned and direct judge said the Lord Chief Justice when Swiftdied in October 1937, by his death his Majesty's judges have lost a brilliant and beloved colleague and the public has lost an experienced and fearless judge.
This biography traces a great forensic and judicial career from lancashire apprenticeship through London success to judicial eminence. Great trials inevitably figure in these pages - the trial of Col. Rutherford, the trial of Mrs Bamberger, the Brixton taxi murder and the Charing Cross trunk murder, the 'black magic' case and the 'mongoose' case, the conviction of Seymour at Oxford and the acquital of Mme. Fahmy at the Old Bailey, to name but a few.
But this book is no mere string of trials. It is a portrayal of the rich and loveable personality of a great judge, a man whse warm humanity never permitted him to become a mere cog in the judicial machine. Swift did justice even if he semed to have to strain the law to do it. With a mind uncorrupted by subtlety, he inevitably became known for his outspoken denunciation of shams and sunterfuge wherever he found them.
The book is well salted with examples of that Puckish humour, that ready and robust wit, that has already made Swift's name a legend in legal circles.