Obiter was intrigued to read in the Guardian’s education section last week that those who have had a brush with the law are often inspired to go on and study the subject during their stay at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

Apparently an increasing number of prisoners are studying law, though some worry that their criminal past will prevent them from being admitted as a solicitor (the Solicitors Regulation Authority acknowledges that the ‘overriding consideration is public protection’).

Particularly illuminating was an account by serious offender ‘Gary’, spurred on to study law after the thrill of successfully representing himself in getting one aspect of his punishment reversed.

He says that when he returned from his successful appeal, there was a long queue of fellow inmates all waiting to see him.

‘They wanted me to work on their appeals for them,’ he said. ‘My nickname became "the QC"; even some of the prison guards came to see me, to ask advice about their divorce cases.

‘You need a lot of books to study law, and when I was inside it was difficult to get them.

'Eventually, I decided to write to every judge, barrister and solicitor I could find, asking them to donate books they didn't need any more.

'Lots of them did – in the end I had 40 or 50 books, so many that I had to be moved to a bigger cell!’

Gary is now out of prison and continuing his law degree in the hope of practising as a solicitor. ‘I’d like to work in criminal and family law,’ he said.

‘I don't feel the lawyers I encountered served me as well as they should have done. I want to be a better lawyer for some other defendant in the future.’