Did you ever bend your Butterworths?

I heard a great story recently about the late Philip Hardman (after whom the ICAEW Tax Faculty's annual Hardman event is named).

This story dates back to the days when every tax specialist, team or office would have their own hard copies of what was then Butterworth's Yellow and Orange Tax guides. 

Philip was head of tax for Thornton Baker, before it merged with Alexander Grant to become Grant Thornton.

After a tour of the firm's offices, Philip reported back that he was disappointed by the lack of high level tax work being done around the firm.  His evidence was the number of Butterworth's yellow books that were NOT dog-eared!

The tax teams were later admonished for not referring to the legislation sufficiently often. Back then there was no other way of checking what the law says. 

To avoid repeated criticism the staff apparently found a solution. They would take the yellow and orange books off the shelves and 'bend their Butterworths'!

Goodness only knows how now, in the 21st century anyone can prove they regularly refer to the source tax legislation regularly!