John Harber Phillips served in Victoria as Director of Public Prosecutions and as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. In addition to a range of legal books, Phillips wrote plays, poetry and biographies. His plays, according to his obituarist Gerry Carman, include 'By a Simple Majority - The Trial of Socrates' (1985), 'Conference with Counsel' (1988), 'The Cab Rank Rule' (1996) and 'Starry Night with Cypresses: The Last Hours of Vincent Van Gough' (2003).
Source: Gerry Carman, 'A "Different" Judge Who Made Difference', Age (15 August 2009): 8.
