It is ironic that part of my ghostwriting career is to write books for lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic, because I nearly became a lawyer myself. (Well, if I had learned law, passed the exams, got called to the bar, and had some work experience, but you know what I mean.)
I had a sliding doors moment during my university interview when the professor interviewing me to read English at Corpus Christi College asked me if I wanted to also have an interview to read law at Jesus College, which that year was short of law candidates. Taken by surprise, I said no.
I'd chosen Corpus because it was the only college anyone I knew had attended, and I'd chosen English because I liked reading books. I'd thought briefly about the law and decided I could spend three years reading books I wanted to read and then, if I wanted to become a lawyer, go do a law-conversion course and read a lot of books I didn't want to read.
As it was, I never did decide to become a lawyer. But now I spend a significant part of my time talking to lawyers and hearing stories about the law, I think perhaps I was a bit too hasty in my judgment that it would inevitably involve a lot of boredom. None of the lawyers I've work with have been boring—and neither have the books I've written for them.
It's too late to train as a lawyer now, but at least I still sometimes get to see the world through a lawyer's eyes … and maybe that's good enough for me. (Especially as I didn't actually have to pass any of those fearsome legal exams.)
