By now the whole court was verging on hysteria, with everyone choking back the laughter as best as they could. The judge jumped out of his seat and stormed off the bench resisting the temptation to tell Muirhead where to stick his sentiments as the words, ‘I’m very much obliged to your Lordship’, reached his ears.

Despite such incidents, Muirhead was respected by the Bench as someone who was scrupulously honest and whose integrity was never in doubt. He was undoubtedly his own man. He seldom socialised with his contemporaries and this, allied to the occasional bust-ups with judges in court meant that he was never really accepted by the legal establishment. This state of affairs cost Muirhead not a single wink of sleep.

After thirteen years at the bar, he was elevated to the rank and dignity of Queen’s Counsel. It was an honour which was bestowed on Muirhead grudgingly.

In order to become a QC, an advocate must be recommended to the Queen by Scotland’s senior judge, the Lord President of the Court of Session. The leader of the Bar, the Dean of Faculty, put Muirhead’s name forward to the then Lord President, Lord Fraser, who had never regarded him as being a proper advocate because he spent most of his time defending criminals. Fraser was a man of great intellect but even greater pomposity. He was aware of Muirhead’s background, working-class, nonpublic school educated and considered him too common and vulgar to be one of Her Majesty’s Counsel. The establishment was about to bite back.

The application was turned down.

Muirhead could do nothing about his background and, in any event, didn’t wish to. He refused to change his attitudes, his method of working or his accent. Nor was he prepared to go away, even to please Lord Fraser. He did make a point of taking on some cases in the Criminal Appeal Court. This brought him into direct conflict with Fraser. Try as he might to put Muirhead down, the advocate fought as hard before the Appeal Court as he did before a jury. Fraser began to appreciate that this man would not go away. A year later, and under pressure from other judges who respected James’s ability and integrity, Fraser relented and Muirhead became a QC.

When Muirhead returned with the news, Gill opened a bottle of Bollinger champagne she had kept hidden away. She never doubted that this day would arrive. Even Robert and Sarah, the two children they had ‘acquired’, as James put it, were allowed a sip. It was a very special occasion. The culmination of years of hard work. Since then he had spent most of his working life not just defending criminals, but mainly those accused of murder.

Muirhead drifted out of his reflective state to return to Lord Cowden’s charge. It was drawing to a close.