Rather His Own Man

The comprehensive, brilliantly told, gloriously candid autobiography from Australia's inimitable Geoffrey Robertson. In this book he pays homage to his family and an incredible career across the world. He describes his childhood as a Bondi baby turned Eastwood boy and imbues the early chapters with fascinating family history against a backdrop of beautifully drawn social history - of the Menzies years, the restrictive fifties and sixties that propelled Geoffrey away from Australia to...
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The comprehensive, brilliantly told, gloriously candid autobiography from Australia's inimitable Geoffrey Robertson. In this book he pays homage to his family and an incredible career across the world. He describes his childhood as a Bondi baby turned Eastwood boy and imbues the early chapters with fascinating family history against a backdrop of beautifully drawn social history - of the Menzies years, the restrictive fifties and sixties that propelled Geoffrey away from Australia to the UK. He talks honestly about girlfriends, including Nigella Lawson and Jennifer Byrne, and of course of meeting and marrying Kathy Lette. He writes movingly about his children, Julius and Georgina, and the challenges of bringing up a son on the autistic spectrum, his great pride at both his children's achievements. There are stories of Geoffrey's battles for student rights at Sydney Uni; his move to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar; and his early career from the Oz trial through Spycatcher; devising and broadcasting Hypotheticals; his death penalty cases; his many freedom of speech fights; the work of his London chambers, who were forerunners in legal circles in the nineties when they set up (and who now employ Amal Clooney). He writes about Assange, Snowden, corruption at Scotland Yard and MI5, and in many different regimes around the world - Geoffrey has worked on cases against African, East European and southern and central American dictators. This is a riveting read with scores of brilliant stories spanning an extraordinary career of nearly fifty years.