Rather His Own Man

If Robin Hood, King Arthur, St George, Florence Nightingale and Oscar Wilde were compressed into one witty, brilliant and compassionate lawyer, they still wouldn't come close to approximating the heroic champion of our laws and liberties that is the great Geoffrey Robertson. What a life and how crackingly well told. When a heart-stoppingly unputdownable comedy thriller turns out to be a truthful account of a real life, you know you're on to a winner.

Stephen Fry

Before I read Geoffrey’s brilliant book, I thought a barrister was a guy who made expensive coffee. I’m much wiser now.

Billy Connolly

Geoff is one of the choice and master spirits of the age. Written with all the wit and style you'd expect, this is a delightful, absorbing memoir of a life well lived.

Mike Carlton

Be thankful that Geoffrey Robertson is ‘rather his own man’. Reliable Memoirs tells of legal battles for human rights won and lost in the courts of London, Sierra Leone and the Hague. Witty, clever and compassionate, Geoffrey tell his personal story in the pursuit of the holy grail of social justice and the rule of law.

Gillian Triggs

An extraordinary insight … into one of the best minds of a generation

Courier-Mail

If you are seeking inspiration, look no farther than the memoirs of my colleague Geoffrey Robertson, QC, Rather His Own Man. While Robertson often casts an amused eye over his own cases, the essential part he plays in human rights legal history shines through. Robertson is an original and creative legal, social and political thinker. His writing, always provocative, is witty, engaging and at times laugh-out-loud funny. His tone slickly transits from gossip splashed around his celebrity pool to full battle cry. Kick back and enjoy the ride.

The Times - summer reads 2018

Captivating reading … entertaining and erudite throughout

Canberra Weekly

Display[s] not only his high intellect and admirable independence of thought, but literary flair and an unexpected self-deprecating side

Australian

As this scrupulously informed and charmingly written memoir proves, Geoffrey Robertson, AO, QC, is far more entertaining than some lawyers dare to be and far more literate than some writers have the right to be

Sydney Morning Herald

Robertson reflects on a life of love, laughter and litigation with the charm and humour of an adept dinner party conversationalist

Sun-Herald

Thoroughly entertaining. Robertson has won countless famous legal victories and helped to change attitudes to human rights far beyond these shores. He is an epic raconteur … It’s a book that might persuade a young person that the law need not be a dull profession

Sunday Times

A rare legal autobiography that entertains, informs and inspires. Robertson’s talents, as a lawyer and as an author, are to seduce the judge, jury or reader by his exceptional command of language and rhetoric, and his ability to ridicule his opponent’s case out of court … He has played a significant part in changing legal culture

The Times

Riveting. [Robertson]’s contemporaries at the bar will read these memoirs with envy; others with almost as much enjoyment as his eminent entourage attests to on the dustjacket.

Spectator (UK)

The rollicking adventures of an exceptional talent with an unwavering commitment to human rights ... a fabulous and enjoyable read that I would recommend to lawyers and non-lawyers alike

Journal of NSW Bar Association

A rollicking read, with some laugh-out-loud lines […] a useful primer to some of the great legal arguments of our age.

Law Society Gazette (UK)

A memoir that is by turns gossipy and gobsmackingly enthralling

Qantas magazine

Geoffrey Robertson has never not known whose side he is on and what he wants to say. His learned account of his life - from the wastelands of suburban Australia via the Oz trial at the Old Bailey, to the Hague and his marriage to Kathy Lette - is no exception. One of the world's most famous human right's lawyers, who has represented everyone from pornographers to Princess Diana, he showcases his immense talents with typical gravitas, grandstanding and gossipy insight.

Sunday Times Books of the Year