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Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: From football hooligan to top lawyer

Gary Bell QC

29/07/2015

From football hooligan to top lawyer

BBC World Service - Outlook, From football hooligan to top lawyer

After a spell as a football hooligan, Gary Bell defied expectations

Gary Bell is one of the UK's top lawyers. But after spending his teenage years as a football hooligan, this glittering career was not one he dreamed of.

Gary Bell is now one of the UK's top lawyers, holding the prestigious title of Queen's Counsel, or Silk. But this glittering career was not one he dreamed of. When he came into the Outlook studio, he told Matthew Bannister about his childhood, growing up in a poor community in the English Midlands.

The author Murong Xuecun is one of China's leading dissident voices and one of its most popular novelists. Known for his darkly humorous stories of city life, he has often been at odds with the Chinese authorities over issues including corruption and the censorship of writers. After winning China's leading literary prize in 2010 he was prevented from making an acceptance speech. Last year - while travelling in Australia - Murong announced via the internet that he was going to turn himself over to the police for contributing an essay commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protest. 

In 2008 Jes Foord was gang raped by a group of five men in South Africa. She survived and, a year after the attack, started the Jes Foord Foundation. Jes decided she would openly tell her story to women across South Africa and today her organisation is offering counselling and help to thousands of rape survivors.

(Photo: Gary Bell)

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