THE QUESTION I’M MOST OFTEN ASKED…

If you ever happen to fall into conversation with a criminal defence barrister, they will tell you there’s one question they’re always asked when meeting someone new:  

‘How can you defend someone when you know they’re guilty?’  

We all have our prepared answer to that one, constructed and perfected in the sure knowledge that – be it at a dinner party or on a date or even just in the pub – the question will be coming. And one day, probably when I’m lost for something to write for the website, I might even give you my answer.

But not today.

Today I’m going to talk about the question I’ve most often been asked since 2018. Because from the moment I was first published and I became a ‘barrister-slash-thriller writer’ (it’s a thing now, apparently. Like actor-slash-model. It’ll probably be on the next census.) the question has changed. I no longer get ‘How can you defend…’etc. Well, not all the time, anyway.

Instead, the question I’m now most often asked is:

‘You’re a writer and a trial lawyer? How do you find the time?’

It’s a much better question. And it’s also much harder to answer. Because the truth is, I just don’t know myself!

I’m writing this blog on 14 February 2022. It’s St Valentine’s Day, so of course there are things to be done to avoid my wife divorcing me for another year. Plus today we start construction of the website you’re now reading, so there’s a lot of back and forth going on there, too (including ‘Tony, where the hell is that blog you promised me?’). I also have a number of articles due today and tomorrow for various newspapers, legal magazines and online publications, all revolving around recent developments in criminal law and criminal justice. And at 7pm tonight – like every night – I’ve got a story to read for my 3-year-old son, because if Joseph doesn’t get Oi Cat!, Jeremiah Jellyfish, Aliens Love Underpants or something similar, well, there’s going to be hell to pay!

These things, though, are the incidentals. The daily ‘to-do’ list. Because on top of them I have my case work and my court appearances. And they are what really take up my time.

Right now I am instructed to defend a lot of very serious cases. My upcoming jury trials include a multi-million pound ‘boiler room’ fraud in the City of London (the quickest explanation I can give you of what a ‘boiler room’ fraud is would be to say ‘go watch The Wolf of Wall Street’. Because it’s that. Minus the dwarf tossing. Or maybe not minus the dwarf tossing; I never did get invited to the parties!); three allegations of gangland murder; an alleged conspiracy to import 200 kg of heroin and another to import 300kg of cocaine, both of which – if convicted – would attract sentences in excess of 25 years imprisonment. I am also newly instructed for the main defendant in a case that alleges the production of forged passports, supposedly supplied to a rogue’s gallery of the most notorious and infamous names from the criminal world. And in a little over four weeks I am due to begin a one-month long trial focused on the use of encrypted communication devices to run the operation of an alleged organised crime group, where the intricate workings of these little-understood technologies will be the subject of detailed expert cross-examination. Which means I need to bone up on that as well, as I’ll be one of the barristers taking on the world’s leading expert on the subject.

There are other cases, too. There always are. Appeals. Legal arguments. Smaller jury trials. And when these are all done, the list above will have regenerated itself and the next twelve months will be mapped out in much the same way. I’m lucky to have a very busy practice. I love what I do for a living and I would never be foolish enough to complain about the workload, because there are many barristers out there who do not get this kind of work and who do not get to plan ahead in this way.

What I also won’t do, however, is pretend that it’s an easy task when I also have to deliver ‘a thriller a year’ as Tony Kent (in case you were wondering, Tony Kent is a pseudonym). My books are long – usually between 120,000 and 130,000 words – and although I write fast, that’s still a lot to deliver. And that’s before we throw in events and articles and book signings and all the stuff that goes with promoting them, and which are now looming as we approach the 14 April release date for the No Way to Die paperback . . .

And so when I get asked the question ‘Where do you find the time?’ I do totally get it. People must want to know. Mainly because I want to know. Or at least I used to; by writing this article I have finally given the question some proper thought instead of just answering off the cuff. And I think I know the answer!

Or, more accurately, the two-part answer.

The first part is easy to describe, simple to understand and yet not easy to maintain. I stay up late and write into the night. Or, if I’m not leaving early for court, I get up early and hit my word count before the day begins. Either way, I set myself a target of between 3,000 and 4,000 words a day and I have to hit the lower number no matter what. It’s the only way to break the back of the books.

The second part is a bit harder, in that I try to make sure I always have my laptop with me. Every day provides opportunity – a half an hour here, an hour there – to sit down and just type. And over the years I’ve discovered that some of these are opportunities are more useful than others. An hour’s train journey? Brilliant. Three hours as you wait for a jury to come back, always waiting on the edge of your seat for the tannoy to say they’ve reached a verdict? Not so much. Or a bar, looking over the Mediterranean via a Spanish beach with a San Miguel and an endless plate of tapas? Don’t get me started . . .

So yes. How do I find the time? I guess the answer is that I make the time. I chose this second career and I love what I do, just as I chose – and love – the Criminal Bar. I love to write. And my readers seem to enjoy the result. So no matter how hard it is to answer the question and no matter how much harder it is to actually achieve that answer, I see myself doing both jobs – juggling both responsibilities – for many years to come.

Hopefully you’ll join me for at least the book side of that journey!