Guy Beringer and two A&O Shearman lawyers grandchildren.
The former Senior Partner of Allen & Overy, now A&O Shearman, has launched a trilogy of children’s books about heroic woodland animals battling a “wicked Crow dynasty”.
Lawyers seeking a new challenge isn’t a new phenomenon. But instead of inventing an ergonomic potty or becoming a pet psychic, Guy Beringer, A&O’s Senior Partner between 2000-2008, has opted to become a children’s author.
Tales from Port Navas Creek will delight the younger reader as a band of creatures overcome “insuperable odds” while solving “many riddles”, learning “that there are always more Great Questions to be answered”. So, an opportunity for sequels and essential reading for trainees.
The former Senior Partner told RollOnFriday that the books, illustrated by his wife, came about after he decided to jot down the stories he was telling his four grandchildren.
He named a character for each of them, but then another grandchild arrived and Beringer felt compelled to write a further book to include him. When two more grandchildren were born, Beringer scribed a third volume.
Having swollen the menagerie to include a fieldmouse, two owls, a grasshopper, a gryphon, a pixie and a bulldog, as well as a badger and a hedgehog representing him and his wife, he sought assurances from his three daughters “that there would be no further characters to include”, as presumably a tetralogy would have pushed the limits of the narrative.
Fittingly, one story follows a court case in which one of the heroes faces trial (the judge is a timid mole called Sir Blindly Faithful).
It sounds like the regulator might have to look into Coriolanus Crow.
For readers looking for some bedtime reading, here is a link: the first set of books have currently sold out, but the restock should be available from 1st October onwards.
In the meantime, here are some other children’s books to peruse. Or a dystopian novel by a former HSF partner if that’s more your bag.