Showing results by author "John Mortimer" in All Categories

Horace Rumpole, the irreverent, iconoclastic, claret-swilling, poetry-spouting barrister at law, is among the most beloved characters of English crime literature. He is not a particularly gifted attorney, nor is he particularly fond of the law by courts if it comes to that, but he’d rather be swinging at a case than bowing to his wife Hilda, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed.

Here are six delightful tales featuring everyone’s favorite barrister for the defense, Horace Rumpole. Eccentric characters such as his wife, Hilda, otherwise known as “She Who Must Be Obeyed”, and his philandering colleague Claude Erskine-Brown are back as Rumpole visits a snooty restaurant where he engages in a battle of wills over his adored mashed spuds, takes the unaccustomed role of prosecutor, and ventures - unwillingly - onto a ship, where he confronts, of all things, a detective novelist.

Back in the harness after his abortive retirement to Florida, Rumpole glories in the mushroom pie, rainy day life of the Old Bailey. Here he spars with some old familiars like the venomous Judge Bullingham, and makes the acquaintance of some fresh foes. Six stories.

In these witty and comic stories, Horace Rumpole takes on a variety of clients and activities. He, of course, brings each case to a successful end, all the while quoting poetry and drinking claret.

Horace Rumpole, the comic, courageous, and corpulent “great defender of muddled and sinful humanity”, is joined by a winning cast of villains and victims in this collection of six tales in which wry humor and sparkling wit deftly send up the British legal system. In Rumpole and the Angel of Death, our hero achieves new, resounding triumphs over the forces of prejudice and mean-mindedness.

It’s high summer when Molly Pargeter drags her amiably bickering family to a rented Tuscan villa for the holidays. Molly is sure that the house is the perfect setting for their three-week getaway, but soon she becomes fascinated by the lives of the absent owners and things start to go horribly wrong.

In the first of six witty short stories, 60s-something English barrister, Horace Rumpole, takes on the younger generation both at home and in the hallowed courtroom—while offending his esteemed colleagues and his draconian wife, Hilda.

Timothy West takes on the role of Rumpole in this collection of cracking court cases. The stories included are: Rumpole and the Primrose Path, Rumpole and the Scales of Justice, Rumpole and the Vanishing Juror, Rumpole Redeemed.

Timothy West takes on the role of Rumpole in this collection of cracking court cases, including Rumpole and the Teenage Werewolf, Rumpole and the Right to Privacy, Truth Makes All Things Plain, and The Past Catches Up with Us All....

Known as “The Bailey Hack” for his chain smoking, the irrepressible Rumpole is engaged to defend a church vicar who is accused of theft and whose only defense for now is “divine intervention”. Meeting up with old friend George Frobisher for after-work drinks, Rumpole can't help but notice that George's female companion looks suspiciously familiar. 

After ten straight losses under the satanic Judge Bullingham, Rumpole decides it’s time to hang up his wig - permanently. But when he reads of the Notting Hill Gate Underground murder, he goes from being bored with his new life, to just plain homesick. So, Bullingham notwithstanding, Rumpole makes his return.

The irrepressible, audacious defence barrister Horace Rumpole whose court scenes are proverbial, and whose home is ruled by Mrs Rumpole, is back in these short stories by John Mortimer. The much loved stories were adapted from his scripts for the hugely popular TV series of the same name.

Creator of the mysteries starring the beloved English barrister, Horace Rumpole, John Mortimer paints a spirited portrait of his own colorful life in his quirky autobiography, Clinging to the Wreckage. With wit and style, he takes you from his austere childhood in a 1930s British boarding school to his successful dual career in law and writing during the 1980s. Raised on his barrister father’s sordid tales of divorce cases, young John Mortimer grew up to view the world with an acute sense for the absurd.

Where is Rumpole, that eccentric barrister famous for his knowledge of bloodstains, blood groups, and forgery by typewriter? He is supposed by one and all to be enjoying his well-earned retirement in the Florida sunshine with his son, Nick; daughter-in-law, Erica; and, of course, She Who Must Be Obeyed. But Rumpole is made of sterner stuff, and the nearest whiff of a tricky blood case and he abandons the pleasure of Florida orange juice and descends on the dear old Chambers to take command once again.

Rumpole defends Charles Hearthstoke against charges of keeping bawdy houses, in the form of his chain of massage parlors. The case has become quite a scandal since many customers were prominent members of the community and, to Rumpole's astonishment, paid with credit cards. Guthrie Featherstone, who sought a massage for an injury, now thinks that may be identified as one of the patrons, and Rumpole cunningly arranges for him to preside at Hearthstoke's trial. 

ASBOs may be the pride and joy of New Labour, but they don't cut much ice with Horace Rumpole - he takes the old-fashioned view that if anyone is going to be threatened with a restriction of their liberty then some form of legal proceeding ought to be gone through first. When one of the Timson children is given an ASBO for playing football in the street, Rumpole soon realizes something fishy is going on.

In this collection of Rumpole stories the comic, courageous, and corpulent 'great defender of muddled and sinful humanity' is joined by a winning cast of villains and victims in tales whose wry humour and sparkling wit deftly send up the legal system. In Rumpole and the Angel of Death our hero achieves resounding triumphs over the forces of prejudice and mean-mindedness. Rumpole and the Way through the Woods involves Rumpole in the world of hunters and the hunted, animal rights and human wrongs.

When Simeon Simcox, a socialist clergyman, leaves his entire fortune not to his family but to the ruthless, social-climbing Tory MP Leslie Titmuss, the Rector's two sons react in very different ways. Henry, novelist and former 'angry young man' turned grumpy old reactionary, decides to fight the will and prove their father was insane. Younger brother Fred, a mild-mannered country doctor, takes a different approach, quietly digging in Simeon's past, only to uncover an entirely unexpected explanation for the legacy.

Rumpole again defends a member of the Timson clan on a charge of possession of stolen goods - namely, he is caught with a garage full of expensive wine. Rumpole is concerned that Timson's explanation that he purchased the wine from some unknown individual he met in a pub will not go down well with Mr. Justice Graves, who has heard these stories many times before. 

Rumpole isn't particularly fond of Christmas; he finds it has a horrible habit of dragging on as he and She Who Must Be Obeyed go through the usual rituals in Froxbury Mansions. After the exchange of presents (lavender water for her, a tie for him) they settle down to a supermarket turkey with all the trimmings, followed by a glass of port. The only excitement comes in deciding whether to stand for the national anthem after the Queen's Speech.