Customer Reviews

Rumpole and the Primrose Path

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In "Rumpole and the Primrose Path" we find our favorite claret-swilling elderly junior barrister in fine form. As anarchic as ever, in the short story that lends its name to the collection, Rumpole stages a break from the nursing home where he is recuperating from a mild heart attack. This story sets the tone for the collection, proving that not even a brush with his own mortality (and when everyone in his old chambers has begun plotting his memorial service) can dampen the Rumpole eccentricities.

To show that he keeps up with the times, Mortimer has Rumpole deal with a case involving wayward e-mails; we cheer as Rumpole evades the body tyranny of fitness clubs. Add to this the odd bit of passion that erupts like a boil (affairs that could be as messy and painful to those involved) among the barristers and judges of the Old Bailey.

The mysteries are slight. The main joy is reading Rumpole's exploits as he again makes the rounds of the Old Bailey while living under the benevolent despotism of She.

Even the ever-unromantic Rumpole finishes the collection by bending enough to admit that if he outlives She Who Must Be Obeyed he would feel a certain loneliness. She Who Must grudgingly admits that she, too, inexplicably wants to keep Rumpole around for a while longer.

I can second that sentiment. Should any of his fans outlive Rumpole there would be a decided literary void. By all means, let's keep Rumpole around for quite some time to come.

The back of this book suggests that Rumpole is now of similar stature to Sherlock Holmes or Bertie Wooster in English fiction. Probably this is right, somehow or other Mortimer has been writing Rumpole stories for more than 20 years. The character started out as a sort of failure. A criminal barrister in his later years who had not made QC or head of chambers. Someone who the world had passed by. A lot of the early stories relied on the tension between Rumpole who never changed and a world that was constantly changing. Over time somehow Rumpole stopped being a failure and started to represent some of the better things in the law. The desire not to judge, to be fair, the professional skill of advocacy. He began to represent a series of attitudes that to some extent have come under attack as Britian's Legal System has changed.

In this collection of stories he is shown as being perhaps the one competant advocate in his chambers. The other barristers in the book, Soapy Sam Ballard and Claude Erskine Brown representing the type of lawyers who never realise the importance of the liberty of the subject or the underpinning of the system and see the practise of criminal law as slumming.

Each of the stories is well done and the endings are not telescoped. There is one new character an efficiency expert but the other players are the old familiar ones from so many books. It is a book that brings delight to an afternoon or something which can make a train or bus tip a joy.

It is a formula that works to a tee. A crime mystery is set against the background of Rumpole's various goings on in his private life or his chambers.

This book of five stories is as fresh as the first.

When last we left Rumpole, he was recovering from a near-fatal heart attack at the end of "Rumpole Rests his Case." That was a bittersweet book, because Rumpole was beginning to show his age and appeared to be slipping quickly into the final stages of life. He was an elderly barrister nearing the end of his career when he made his debut back in the 1970's. Now, thirty some odd years later, he must be pushing 100. I hoped that any future Rumpole opuses would come from his as-yet-unchronicled youth.

Such was not the case. This latest offering has Rumpole fully recovered from his heart attack and showing the vigor of a youngster in his early sixties. Apparently Mortimer has decided to stop the aging process and keep Rumpole's age forever on the edge of retirement. I, for one, approve. Although the plots in this last book are not as complex as in earlier stories, the mysteries are still as satisfying as ever. The supporting cast of regulars has subsided somewhat into the background and more attention is shown to Rumpole's relationship with his wife, Hilda.

Although possibly not quite up to the high standards of the first stories in the Rumpole Saga, the stories in this book are quite satisfying.

Rumpole is back - and better than ever. He's even enjoying a bit of success in his senior years.

In these six short stories, Rumpole represents an accused murderer, a police officer accused of conspiracy to murder, and a newspaper accused of invasion of privacy. He even gets to spring one of the incorrigible Timson's in the cleverest Timson tale yet.

What makes the Rumpole series so popular is not just the shear likeability of its untidy and overweight Old Bailey hack, but his deep-seated understanding of the difference between justice and law, and his true affection for the poor and unempowered.

In this book, the author depicts such thoroughly modern characters as a child of the streets, a poor single mum, and a `redeemed' con. As Rumpole says when he encounters an injustice: Get up on your hind legs and make a fuss about it!

By the way, there was another English author who exposed the underside of English society in a series of popular tales. His name was Charles Dickens.

*** Also recommended for anyone who enjoys the Rumpole books of Sir John Mortimer, anything by Janwillem van de Wettering.

If you're an Anglophile, every "Rumpole" written is worth the price. Many of the Rumpole characters and plots were, in some manner, foretold in some of the other stories. There was a comfort in having this slight familiarity as a reader. So, "Rumpole and the Primrose Path" was a shock. The immortality of Rumpole has never been in question - until his stay in a convalescent hospital resulting from a heart attack. For that matter, the immortality of Rumpole actor Leo McKern was never in doubt - I always just expected him to be with us - like letters from the tax collector. Perhaps McKern's death in 2004 is the reason there is a tinge of sobriety in The Primrose Path that has heretofore been lacking. Horace, as always, has it his own way and comes out on top - but he now seems to recognize that "there, but for the grace of God, goes Horace Rumpole." Still - Rumpole of the Bailey is wonderful and, as long as there is claret, he always will be.

Dipping into a Rumpole book is like putting on a pair of old, comfy slippers on a cold night. I'll always be grateful for the TV series as I'll forever see Leo McKern's craggy face and bulbous nose and the imperious French roll hair do of Hilda. After near demise from a heart attack in the last story, Rumpole reemerges at the Primrose Path nursing home for a long period of rest and rehabilitation, only to be caught up in a dodgy situation with a disappearing patient, a suspicious over night death and a doctor who used to administer care to the criminal classes. A despondent Rumpole reacts to these events like an old warhorse, trumpeting defiance to the Matron and Hilda alike and gallops back into the fray of Chambers. I can only hope that he is never retired and forever stays at this age to delight his readers for years to come.

Leave it to our intrepid attorney Horace Rumpole to sneak out of the convalencent home where he was sent after his near fatal heart attack, and then to be able to defend one of the kindly nurses who befriended him there. As usual, our Old Bailey hack is up to his old tricks, baiting judges, reciting poetry, and faering the wrath of She Who Must Be obeyed. Having been a fan of the television series, I can picture the characters in my mind, and the late Leo McKern will always be Rumpole to me, just as Jeremy Brett remains the essential Sherlock Holmes. These tales are delightful, but my one complaint is that the book is much too short! I could go on reading Rumpole for weeks and never tire of him.

The latest addition to the Rumpole series is, as usual, well-written and entertaining. Rumpole, the "old taxicab for hire" (Rumpole's favourite metaphor for a seasoned barrister who makes himself available to the public), represents various defendants accused of committing theft, breaking and entering, murder, and other crimes. Rumpole's subtle but fearless advocacy helps exonerate the wrongfully accused and bring the guilty to justice. Along the way, Mortimer amuses us with the familiar antics of Rumpole (who may be found enjoying a nice glass of "Chateau Thames Embankment"), Rumpole's wife Hilda ("She Who Must Be Obeyed"), Judge Dame Phillida Erskine-Brown ("the Portia of our chambers"), and many others. The six stories are 30 to 40 pages each, well-paced, and literate.

Although Mortimer has clearly developed a successful formula in Rumpole, the stories in his latest series remain warm and engaging.

Alas, Leo McKern died in 2002. I have to say that the PBS rendition was one dramatization of fiction that I thought was superior to the original. But, thank god, John Mortimer lives!
Much of RUMPOLE AND THE PRIMROSE PATH has to do with Rumpole's return to chambers after a heart attack. The old codger is still as cantankerous as ever. We see him resisting SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED'S efforts to force him to lead a more healthful existence. At one point she has him riding a stationary bicycle at a health club. Imagine Leo McKern on a stationary bike!
I've always been impressed with the ensemble cast in the Rumpole stories and they're all back. SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED is the epitome of the scold. Soapy Sam Ballard, leader of chambers and a Q.C. (Queen's counsel, Queer Customer to Rumpole) illustrates England's strange hierarchal legal system. They have law clerks, solicitors, barristers, queen's counsels, all on an ascending scale. Rumpole is clearly superior to Ballard as a lawyer and one of the stories shows Rumpole upstaging his so-called leader. Then there's the pathetic character, Claude Erskine-Brown, married to Phillida. He leads a delusionary existence where he's some sort of Don Quixote-like Casanova and of course Rumpole is his unwilling confidant. Liz Probert has taken Phillida Erskine-Brown's place as Rumpole's junior. There is also a new character, Liz Gribble, director of marketing and administration at chambers. She's an annoyance but as the stories progress she becomes rather of an Rumpole ally.
Part of RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY'S allure is the humor involved. Rumpole's relationship to the Timsons crime family, his lust for Chateau Thames Embankment, and his never-ending feud with SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED are sidesplittingly funny.

I like this book because it introduces Luci Gribble, the new director of marketing and administration at Rumpole's Chambers. Luci is always spouting corporate jargon and at first glance doesn't seem like anyone Rumpole would like, but she turns out to be a valuable ally and a good friend. She helps him solve the mysteries in "Rumpole and the Primrose Path" and "Rumpole Redeemed," covers for him when his wife Hilda ("She Who Must Be Obeyed") demands that he start working out at a gym, and helps him make it up to Hilda when it transpires that he hasn't been working out as regularly as he says he has. Almost thirty years after the first Rumpole book came out, John Mortimer still knows how to keep Rumpole fresh and enjoyable.