Recent Book: Fire: Fire Investigation
| Published date | 01 October 1969 |
| Date | 01 October 1969 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X6904201006 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
CRIMINAL APPEALS
D. R.
THOMPSON
and H. W.
WOLLASTON:
Court
of
Appeal Criminal
Division. Charles Knight and Co. lOSs.
The subject of this fine work is not
of prime importance in the day-to-day
work of the policeman, although
detectives and others whose duties are
concerned with police prosecutions
will find it both interesting and useful.
The law and practice relating to
criminal appeals have not previously
been the subject of a treatise. The pub-
lication of the present work has be-
come necessary because of the great
and rapid increase in the number of
appeals in criminal cases, due in great
measure, no doubt, to the recent in-
crease in the availability of legal aid.
Accordingly, practitioners are more
than ever before becoming concerned
in the conduct of appeals proceedings
and the giving of advice, and it has
become increasingly necessary for
them to have access to a work pro-
viding the information they need.
There has, too, been a corresponding
increase in the law on the topic, and
the present moment is particularly op-
portune for publication because of the
recent enactment of the Criminal
Appeal Act 1968, which consolidated
the previous law, and of the Legal Aid
Regulations.
The chapter titles give an indication
of the work's wide scope: Constitution;
Where Appeal Lies; Rights of Appeal;
Powers; Parties; Procedure; Criminal
Appeal; Historical Development;
Special Topics; and Legal Aid and
Taxation. In addition to these very full
chapters, the book has 278 pages of
appendices which contain the text of
all the relevant statutes, regulations,
rules, Home Office circulars, and
forms.
Few policemen will wish to go to
the expense of purchasing copies but
every police library should have a copy
on its shelves. The authors are to be
congratulated on producing a most
useful work. J.
DANIEL
DEVLIN.
FIRE
PAUL
L. KIRK: Fire Investigation. John Wiley &Sons. $8.95
It
is a pleasure to read this book. It
combines the two basic factors neces-
sary in every successful
investigation-
technical knowledge plus sound prac-
tical approach. The book is well
illustrated, comprehensively indexed,
and set out in such a way as to make it
easy to read and understand.
Fire investigation is never easy and
can be very worrying. Accidents do
happen, of course, but for a senior
police officer to have to endorse a file
"Record as cause unknown" always
gives cause for concern. So much can
be involved.
It
could be a preventable
accident; it could be a colossal fraud,
and, where human life is involved, it
could be homicide. The responsibility
is great; there can always be a next
time.
What encouraged me to read on was
that the author of the book deals with
435
first things first. At the very outset he
explains simply and clearly the elemen-
tary chemistry of combustion, and
then goes on to explain the nature and
behaviour of fires and the combustion
properties of solid and non-solid fuels.
A knowledge of these principles is as
necessary to an investigator as to a
scientist.
It
is the point and source of
the ignition which are the keys to the
problem. In other words the great
majority of fires, however vast they
become, start with one tiny flame.
After dealing with these principles
the author goes on to deal in detail
with every aspect of fires and methods
of establishing the truth, and any
police officerwho reads it must become
better qualified to investigate not only
fires but crimes involved within the
background of fires. The lighted
cigarette end is not always the cause!
T.L.
October 1969
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