As many a comedian-turned-writer has found to his or her cost, writing good humorous fiction is a whole different level of difficulty to simply being funny on stage. I can count on the fingers of one hand the authors who have consistently managed to combine genuinely funny writing with style and readability. Wodehouse, of course, has to be one of those digits. (But don't get me started on so called humorous Booker Prize nominees - they wouldn't know funny if it bit them.) And one chubby finger surely must be allocated to John Mortimer and Rumpole of the Bailey. Mortimer wasn't the first to combine the law and humour. There was a lot of gentle amusement to be had from Henry Cecil's series of law-based novels like Brothers in Law . Cecil's was observational humour. His stories were based on experiences real barristers might go through, just exaggerated to bring out the funny side. Rumpole , on the other hand, is full scale legal pantomime, bringing on full scale lau...

You may well have come across science writer Simon Singh , probably best known for writing Fermat's Last Theorem . His most recent book, Trick or Treatment , was a superb analysis of alternative medical practices, showing just what rubbish many of them are. Singh wrote an article (as you do) along the theme of his book and made some negative comments about chiropractors. This wasn't attacking them for what they can do for backs, but rather their claims to be able to help with a whole host of conditions that having nothing to do with the spine - such as colic and asthma in children. In response, the BCA, their UK national organization, has sued Singh. The first hearing, to determine just what he is alleged to have done, went badly for Singh. The judge decided that Singh's comments were 'statement of fact' rather than fair comment, and that his use of the word 'bogus' meant that he was accusing the BCA of deliberate dishonesty, despite Singh specifically defin...