A GREAT Bedwyn pensioner has put pen to paper to release an account of his varied career, which has ranged from being a barrister to completing national service.

Harry Mitchell's new release Confessions of a Briefless Barrister, is now on bookshelves across the county, detailing the 86-year-old's diverse career.

It took Mr Mitchell, of Brook Street, about two years took to write the book, which covers his time at school, at Cambridge University, where he studied law, his life when he lived in Sierra Leone and then his work as a barrister.

"Having reached my eighties, I feel I have had an unusually varied life to look back on, much of which was worth recording," said Mr Mitchell, who has now written two books, after writing his first work Remote Corners in 2002.

"I got a lot of pleasure out of writing this and jotting down the varied path my life has taken, it has been very enjoyable. I did it partly for my family too and they really like it. I gave them free copies."

Though he became a barrister in 1968 and achieved the distinction of being appointed a Queens Counsel in 1987, he always worked as a lawyer in positions of increasing seniority in different industries, but never in a private practice.

"The title is deliberately ambiguous, as I was never in the position to accept a brief as I worked for companies and not for private practices," he said.

The book is on sale for £13 from Troubador Publishing Ltd, 9 Priory Business Park, Kibworth, Leicester, LE8 0RX, in bookstores and from Amazon.