View all newsletters
Sign up to our newsletters

Support 110 years of independent journalism.

  1. Culture
13 August 2014updated 03 Aug 2021 2:26pm

Lady Chatterley’s lawyer: Jeremy Hutchinson interviewed

Once married to the actress Peggy Ashcroft, Hutchinson was known be a dashing, lyrical figure liable to quote poetry. 

By Antonia Quirke

A Law Unto Themselves
BBC Radio 4

The third in a series of conversations between the barrister Helena Kennedy and eminent lawyers and judges (12 August, 9am) featured the 99-year-old “fighter for justice and liberal causes” Jeremy Hutchinson, who is regarded as one of the great criminal advocates “of his or anyone’s day”.

As whistle-stop tours of a career go, this couldn’t possibly have been more entertaining – it was the radio equivalent of someone standing up and continually pulling £50 notes out of their pockets. A member of the defence team for Penguin Books during the 1960 Chatterley trial, Hutchinson said that his most thrilling moment was calling for “Mr E M Forster . . . and then through the door came this little man in a dirty mackintosh. And I was able to say after asking him his name and address, ‘I think you have written some novels.’”

Once married to the actress Peggy Ashcroft, Hutchinson was known be a dashing, lyrical figure liable to quote poetry. (John Mortimer gave his habit of calling judges “old darling” to Rumpole.) When defending the book The Mouth and Oral Sex against charges of obscenity, the judge asked the witness Margaret Drabble why on earth we needed oral sex, having gone without it for thousands of years. In his closing speech to the jury, Hutchinson mourned, “Poor His Lordship! Poor, poor His Lordship! Gone without oral sex for 1,000 years.”

I loved Hutchinson’s rather bemused, modest laughter on hearing Kennedy recount this. You’d expect someone who was so successful at the bar and later in the House of Lords to have the cold eyes of a seagull, but here was a guy who sounded as though he’d leave a party with a cigarette packet simply covered in phone numbers. The tone, however, shifted when Kennedy asked him how often he had relied on being able to have cases laughed out of court. Suddenly he was a Jesuit among a lot of dissipated cardinals.

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
  • Administration / Office
  • Arts and Culture
  • Board Member
  • Business / Corporate Services
  • Client / Customer Services
  • Communications
  • Construction, Works, Engineering
  • Education, Curriculum and Teaching
  • Environment, Conservation and NRM
  • Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
  • Finance Management
  • Health - Medical and Nursing Management
  • HR, Training and Organisational Development
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives
  • Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities
  • Legal Officers and Practitioners
  • Librarians and Library Management
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • OH&S, Risk Management
  • Operations Management
  • Planning, Policy, Strategy
  • Printing, Design, Publishing, Web
  • Projects, Programs and Advisors
  • Property, Assets and Fleet Management
  • Public Relations and Media
  • Purchasing and Procurement
  • Quality Management
  • Science and Technical Research and Development
  • Security and Law Enforcement
  • Service Delivery
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
  • Wellbeing, Community / Social Services
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU

“It’s a very dangerous thing to do – because, for a defendant, no case is a laughing matter.” His is a rare voice now: slightly rocking, infinitely rhythmic and with deep reservoirs of equanimity. A voice doing what every great voice does: dissolve all save the ear. 

Content from our partners
The promise of prevention
How Labour hopes to make the UK a leader in green energy
Is now the time to rethink health and care for older people? With Age UK

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
  • Administration / Office
  • Arts and Culture
  • Board Member
  • Business / Corporate Services
  • Client / Customer Services
  • Communications
  • Construction, Works, Engineering
  • Education, Curriculum and Teaching
  • Environment, Conservation and NRM
  • Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
  • Finance Management
  • Health - Medical and Nursing Management
  • HR, Training and Organisational Development
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives
  • Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities
  • Legal Officers and Practitioners
  • Librarians and Library Management
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • OH&S, Risk Management
  • Operations Management
  • Planning, Policy, Strategy
  • Printing, Design, Publishing, Web
  • Projects, Programs and Advisors
  • Property, Assets and Fleet Management
  • Public Relations and Media
  • Purchasing and Procurement
  • Quality Management
  • Science and Technical Research and Development
  • Security and Law Enforcement
  • Service Delivery
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
  • Wellbeing, Community / Social Services
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU