On Thursday 16 January 2025, Laura Devine Immigration was pleased to host a Literary Lounge with Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC where she discussed her book Rough Justice.

Until March 2022 Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC was a judge at the Old Bailey, sitting on criminal cases, trying mainly allegations of murder and other homicide. She read English and Law at Cambridge, was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1975, became a QC in 1998 and sat as a full-time judge from 2007 to 2022. When she moved to the Old Bailey in 2012 she was the only woman amongst sixteen judges, and only the third woman ever to hold a permanent position there.

She was also a Diversity and Community Relations Judge, working to promote understanding between the judiciary and many different sectors of our community, particularly those from less privileged and minority groups. She mentors young people, from a variety of backgrounds, who hope for a career in law and has a special interest in helping women. Her first book, Unlawful Killings, won the Crime Writer’s Association ‘Gold Dagger’ for Non-fiction and was a Sunday Times bestseller.

A raffle on the evening benefited the HMP Isis – A Reading Prison project, managed by the Sheriffs’ and Recorders’ Fund. The aim of the project is to raise the profile of reading within the prison and to use reading and books as a way to link prisoners to their families.