Regina V. Rumpole — John Clifford Mortimer

"Rumpole is worthy to join the great gallery of English oddballs ranging from Pickwick to Sherlock Holmes, Jeeves and Bertie Wooster" -J. W. Lambert in the Sunday Times What have a tea-leaf, a swede and a rotten egg got in common? The answer of course is Horace Rumpole, and to the sensitive nostrils of that esteemed Barrister- at-Law they have the far-off but nonetheless delectable scent of a defense. Quick of wit and fleet of foot, especially when popping into Pommeroy's for a swift glass of Chåteau Fleet Street, Horace Rumpole, Old Bailey Hack and husband of Hilda (known to him alone as She Who Must Be Obeyed), moves through the pages of Regina v Rumpole with his customary delight in nice little murders, or indeed in any case that will turn a bob or two (hopefully to be preserved from the tax man or his clerk, Henry). Rumpole's skirmishes both down the Old Bailey, or even, should Henry so decree, in the furthest reaches of the Uxbridge Magistrates' Court, not to mention within the welcoming portals of Casa Rumpole, are a joy to read. The man who, entirely on his own and without a Leader, altered the course of British legal history in the Penge Bungalow Murders will here unselfishly traverse entire continents and oceans at the merest hint of a bloodstain. The truth makes all things plain and so (usually) does Horace Rumpole. John Mortimer is a playwright, a novelist and a lawyer. During the war he worked with the Crown Film Unit and published a number of novels before turning to the theatre. His plays include The Dock Brief, What Shall We Tell Caroline P, The Wrong Side of the Park and Voyage Round My Father. His translations of Feydeau have been performed at the National Theatre. He has written many film scripts, television and radio plays.