Berlins was born in
Marseille, France, on 30 October 1941, the only child of Jacques Berlins and his wife, Pearl. Of Latvian-Jewish heritage, they had moved to France to open a hotel. When the country was
occupied by the Nazis in 1940, Jacques became active in the
Resistance; the family moved to a village near
Luberon. There Berlins learnt English, reputedly in part through reading the works of
Agatha Christie. Berlins studied law at the
University of the Witwatersrand and spent his early career in the courts in
Johannesburg. Berlins wrote a weekly column for
The Guardian, and regularly reviewed
crime fiction for
The Times. He devised and presented, for
London Weekend Television, the first television drama-documentary to feature real lawyers and judges doing their job and created and edited the award-winning publication
The Law Magazine. Berlins was a visiting professor at
City, University of London, in the Department of Journalism. He taught Media Law to students on the Postgraduate Diplomas in Broadcast Journalism, Magazine Journalism, Newspaper Journalism and Television Current Affairs Journalism, as well as the BA in Journalism and a Social Science. Berlins was played piano throughout his life, including stints at a club in
Lourenço Marques in Mozambique, and at the public piano in
St Pancras railway station. In one of his last articles for
The Guardian, Berlins wrote of the impact on him of
Orson Welles’s portrayal of
Clarence Darrow, the American lawyer who defended two high-profile murderers facing the
death penalty in 1924, which had inspired his interest in justice and the law. == Personal life ==