Those who have used the serried ranks of volumes of Halsbury in the course of their professional work may, perhaps, have regarded Halsbury the man as almost a mythical figure - a man so much overshadowed by the work which bears his name that he himself has been hidden from public view. John Hostettler in this volume brings him triumphantly to life. Although the many years of his life belonged to the 19th century and to the Victorian era, the later part of his life proved to be the most productive. And what a period tha was : the tumultuous history of the early days of this century, with the social revolution following the end of the Victorian reign, the Lloyd George "Peoples's Budget", the Easter Rising in Ireland, the Taff Vale case, and with the approah of the Great War as a dark and terrifying backdrop. John Hostettler has written a biography which is a fully rounded portrait of Halsbury - Halsbury the Barrister; Halsbury the politician, Halsbury the Lord Chanellor, Halsbury the Judge, and Halsbury as the progenitor of that remarkable exposirtion on the Common Law which bears his name so proudly as a great jurist.