Step into Tudor Chambers. It’s got addiction, abuse, drugs, financial ruin, scandal and violence. And that’s just the barristers.
Tamika starts at Tudor Chambers full of hope and idealism – only to be confronted by some harsh truths about the broken criminal justice system and the integrity of some of her colleagues.
Barred is a contemporary thriller about a young black barrister trying to establish her career. She believes the law is a wonderful thing: “It’s freed slaves and humbled tyrants.” The problem is the Head of Chambers believes the law is simply a machine for making as much money as possible: “Justice doesn’t come into it.”
The stage is set for an epic clash of people, values and ambitions.
As tensions rise, the truth about a violent sexual assault in Tamika’s past starts to emerge but, rather than support her, colleagues use this vulnerability to manipulate and undermine her.
Barred sits on a fault line between ordinary people and the institutions that are supposed to serve them – written with the knowledge of an insider and the passion of an outsider.
Thandi Lubimbi spent much of her childhood growing up in deprived areas of the country. She joined the army to get away, worked as a Senior Intelligence Officer for a law enforcement agency and then retrained as a barrister prosecuting criminal offences.
Richard Kurti has written extensively for radio and television, with award winning dramas for BBC Radio 4 (I, Robot, The Boy from Aleppo who Painted the War) and Audible (The Effect), and has two prize winning YA novels published by Walker Books.
