The Great Post Office Scandal
The fight to expose a multimillion pound IT disaster which put innocent people in jail
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Bath Publishing Ltd
Published:31st Oct '22
Should be back in stock very soon
The Great Post Office Scandal is the extraordinary story behind the recent ITV drama series Mr Bates vs The Post Office. It tells of how thousands of subpostmasters were accused of theft and false accounting on the back of evidence from Horizon, the flawed computer system designed by Fujitsu, and how a group of them, led by Alan Bates, took their fight to the High Court. Their eventual victory in court vindicated their claims about the defects of the software and exposed the heavy handed attempts by the Post Office to suppress them. The book also recounts how successive senior managers, business leaders, lawyers, civil servants and Government ministers, at best failed to expose the injustice or, even worse, sought to cover it up, resulting in one of the largest miscarriages of justice in UK history. The author, Nick Wallis, is a journalist and broadcaster who has been reporting on the scandal for over ten years and who acted as script consultant on Mr Bates vs The Post Office, the ITV drama that brought the affair into the national consciousness. As the public inquiry reaches its climax, and senior figures such as Paula Vennells come to be questioned, The Great Post Office Scandal reveals the full scale of what happened and how so many of our trusted institutions allowed the saga to go on for nearly a quarter of a century, shattering the lives of thousands of innocent people.
"An extraordinary journalistic expose of a huge miscarriage of justice." Ian Hislop, Editor, Private Eye; "The definitive account of the scandal - from the journalist who pursued every twist and turn." Mishal Husain, Broadcaster; "Beautifully written. Full of heart rending detail, clarity and insight." Patrick Spence, Creative Director, ITV Studios; "Nick has come to understand the ultimately destructive management culture which pervaded the Post Office from the top down." Tom Hedges, former Subpostmaster; "A tale brilliantly told by Nick Wallis, who has dedicated years of work to establishing what happened, why it happened and calling those responsible to account. I urge you to read it." Rev Richard Coles, Presenter; "Nick's narrative has the power of a great thriller as he lays bare the lies and deceit that has ruined so many lives." Dame Joan Bakewell, Journalist; "we can expect to see copies of The Great Post Office Scandal within easy reach of every lawyer and reporter at the hearing." Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Commentator; "the story of a long-running scandal told with empathy and compassion while deftly explaining the complex, technical issues." Sam Tobin, The Law Society Gazette; "Nick Wallis has written what feels like the most important book I have ever read." Paul Gilbert, LBC Wise Counsel; "One of the books of the century." Lord Arbuthnot; "If there is one new book that everyone involved in running any kind of complicated organisation and everyone in politics should read, it is The Great Post Office Scandal by Nick Wallis" Stephen Bush, the i newspaper
ISBN: 9781739099206
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
568 pages