For a Few Guineas More - The Legal Year in Cartoons

In 1993 Queen’s Counsel made its first appearance in the law pages of The Times. It has been published weekly there ever since and, in 2013, at last embraced the modern era by being printed in colour for the first time. Its cast of characters are familiar to anyone with an acquaintance of the English legal system. Sir Geoffrey Bentwood QC, Head of Chambers at 4 Lawn Buildings, a study in legal pomposity, vintage claret and Latin epithets; Richard Loophole, ambulance chaser and senior partner of Filibuster & Loophole; and Rachel Underwood, oppressed associate solicitor who never quite makes partner no matter how many all-nighters she works.

Collected here, in full colour, is the best of the last six years of Queen’s Counsel as its inhabitants progress through the legal year grappling with antiquated senior judges, modern office politics and the elusive search for the client with bottomless pockets.

“Very funny. Beautifully drawn. Sometimes makes me jealous.”

– Charles Peattie, creator of the ‘Alex’ cartoons

“More wonderful fish-in-a-barrel lawyer baiting from Alex Steuart Williams – one can only admire his courage in continuing to goad a profession notoriously at ease with seriously expensive solutions to libel and defamation”

– Martin Rowson

“Even more laughs than the Supreme Court”

– Nick Newman

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Alexander Williams is a cartoonist and animator whose film credits include Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Lion King, The Iron Giant,  the last three Harry Potter films and The Chronicles of Narnia. He has worked for many studios including Disney, DreamWorks, Fox, Warner Bros and Sony.

Alex is Head of Animation at Escape Studios in London, and the founder of the online animation school www.animationapprentice.org. He also draws the weekly cartoon strip Queen’s Counsel which has appeared in the law pages of The Times since 1993, and has published many books.

Nick Reid is a former investment manager living in Edinburgh. He first met Alex whilst they were both working in Tokyo in 2002. Back in the UK, Nick and Alex collaborated together on the book ‘101 Uses for a Useless Banker‘, published in 2009 in the aftermath of the Financial Crash. Around the same time Nick started contributing cartoons for Queen’s Counsel in The Times.