don't let work stop the joy (4 January 2016)

Rose Heildbron is the first woman to sit at the Old Bailey in London, England (1972) and was appointed to the High Court the following year.

This was after becoming

"one of the outstanding defence barristers of the postwar period, she was the first woman to win a scholarship to Gray's Inn, the first woman to be appointed silk, the first to lead in a murder case, the first woman recorder, ... and the first woman treasurer of Gray's Inn."

"She was soon wanted for all the big cases ...  A fellow lawyer said of her, "She defends a person more than a set of facts. I think it shows that she is a woman and that helps her." The London gang leader Jack Spot, whom Heilbron successfully defended after a famous affray in Soho in 1955, said, "She's the greatest lawyer in history." 

(I am secretly imagining a version of Martha Costello in Silk).

She retired from the bench in 1988 at the age of 74.  Many were outraged she had not made it to the Court of Appeal.




Rose Heildbron herself said
I am serious about my career, but that does not mean that I shall give up dancing, swimming, golf or tennis.

A good grasp of emotional modulation.

Matisse's "swimming pool" cut outs intimate both swimming and dancing

i have to remind myself that 

i love

dogs, dancing and driving

the sea, swimming and mangoes