Rumpole of the Bailey [Hardcover]

John Clifford Mortimer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1991

A collection of stories featuring Rumpole of the Bailey, including "Rumpole and the Younger Generation", "Rumpole and the Alternative Society", "Rumpole and the Honourable Member", "Rumpole and the Married Lady, "Rumpole and the Learned Friends" and "Rumpole and the Heavy Brigade".

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for the Rumpole stories:

''Rumpole is one of the immortals of mystery fiction.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle

''Mortimer has created one of the legendary fictional detectives . . . a barrister [who's] as much a detective as Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot.'' --Boston Sunday Globe --This text refers to the MP3 CD edition.

About the Author

JOHN MORTIMER (1923-2009) was a playwright, novelist, and former practicing barrister. He wrote many film scripts, radio, and television plays, and his plays about Rumpole of the Bailey won him the British Academy Writer of the Year Award. He retired from the bar in 1984 and was knighted in 1998. --This text refers to the MP3 CD edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Armchair Detective Library (April 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0922890811
• ISBN-13: 978-0922890811
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,838,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great Detective, May 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Rumpole of the Bailey (Rumpole of the Bailey Series, Book 1)(Library Edition) (Audio Cassette)

The inaugural book in the Rumpole saga presents one of the great characters of British crime fiction. It's Holmes with humor (excuse me; humour), Bertie Wooster with brains. A collection of short stories, all revolve around Horace Rumpole, a self-described "Old Bailey hack". He practices (almost) exclusively as a defense barrister, specializing in hopeless causes, spouting poetry and cigar ash with equal gusto. The book provides the background for the accompanying series on "PBS", and it is at least as much a credit to Leo McKern's portrayal of Horace Rumpole as it is to author John Mortimer's skill that the stories--now contained in three massive omnibuses--have such deep appeal.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction, September 9, 2003

By 

Beverley Strong (Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rumpole of the Bailey (Paperback)

This book is a great introduction to English barrister, Horace Rumpole, an Old Bailey hack who has been around the London courts for many years. Rumpole has no aspirations to "take silk"-becoming a Queens Counsel, and is perfectly happy as a defence lawyer, mostly representing criminals of the non-violent variety.We also meet his wife Hilda, "She Who Must Be Obeyed", who, after all these years, still envisions herself as the wife of Head of Chambers. All of the other characters who occupy the Rumpole stories emerge in these short tales--sneaky, slightly effeminate Erskine-Brown, the bumbling Guthrie Featherstone and the other lawyers and clerks whose lives weave in and out of these stories. You'll love them all and particularly cigar smoking,claret swilling Rumpole himself.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The splendours and miseries of an old Bailey hack!, November 16, 2007

By 

Paul Weiss (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rumpole of the Bailey (Hardcover)

In "Rumpole of the Bailey", John Mortimer has served up a veritable smorgasbord of short snappy tales that are the very best that British courtroom humour has to offer. Whether it's criminal trials in the old Bailey or civil trials in Chancery division, Horace Rumpole takes on all comers with a trademarked irreverent disdain for the sanctity of the law, the court, the judiciary and his learned colleagues at the bar. But, make no mistake, Rumpole's disarming attitude and appearance mask a razor sharp legal mind able to cut directly to the heart of the matter and an ability to draw on brutally cunning legal tactics which, for many American readers, will be reminiscent of the television detective, Columbo.

Whether Rumpole is in court or lighting up a cigar and quaffing a glass of Chateau Fleet Street at his favourite after-hours haunt, Pommeroy's Wine Bar, Rumpole is accompanied by an endearing supporting cast that is an integral part of the amusing, indeed often hilarious stories that Mortimer has produced - Guthrie Featherstone QC MP, the stiffly starched and prissy (yet often philandering) head of chambers; Claude Erskine-Brown, the slightly looser barrister who is head over heels in love with the only female member of chambers, the eloquent and deeply feminist Phillida Trant; Rumpole's wife, Hilda, the imposing "She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed"; and Percy Timson, the patriarch of a widespread London family of low-level criminals whose bumbling failures are destined to keep Rumpole supplied with a steady stream of defense briefs for as long as he cares to work.

Hilarious brain candy guaranteed to take you away from the worries of the workaday world for a blissful all-too-short few hours. Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss