When Samuel Pickwick uttered soothing words to Mrs Bardell in her time of need, he never dreamt that he would find himself in a court of law, in a breach of promise suit. As a parade of his friends did their best as witnesses to extricate him from the situation, not always successfully, the other side produced evidence that was manipulated by skilful lawyers to make a cast iron case for Pickwick’s guilt. In this lawyerly but witty book, Fitzgerald treats Bardell v Pickwick as if it were a real case, analyses the tactics of the various lawyers and scrutinises the points of law Dickens made his fictional lawyers present.