Where There's A Will: Thoughts On The Good Life [Large Print] [Hardcover]

John Mortimer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 2005

Best known for his stories about the disheveled barrister Horace Rumpole, John Mortimer is also an accomplished memoirist, screenwriter, librettist, playwright, and former barrister. Now, at the age of eighty-one, he wonders what he should pass on to the next generation. Here Mortimer ponders this question and writes about the (nonmaterial) things he believes enrich our experience of life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Best known as the creator of Horace Rumpole (Rumpole Rests His Case, etc.), Mortimer delivers much sound advice and liberal opinion, supported by apt literary allusions (from Shakespeare to Wodehouse) and by amusing anecdotes drawn from his dual career as a barrister and an author. In this intimate, extended monologue, the 81-year-old Mortimer holds forth in 32 brief chapters on a wide range of subjects dear to his heart, including such foolish New Labour policies as banning outdoor sex ("I should include in my will a strong recommendation of the joys of alfresco sex"); the excesses of political correctness ("A state in which everyone tiptoed around whispering for fear of hurting somebody's feelings would be dull beyond human endurance"); the virtues of the young ("Children can spot pomposity, insincerity and self-regard a mile off and are the best possible antidote to such diseases"); and the value of vulgarity ("If you can find a streak of vulgarity in yourself, nurture it"). As the punning title suggests, this conversational memoir amounts to an informal last will and testament, but the author ends on an uplifting note as he surveys his children and grandchildren. Mortimer fans and all lovers of civilized prose will share his delight. Agent, Michael Sissons at Peters, Fraser and Dunlop. (On sale May 23)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

What does a man of means and imagination leave behind? Mortimer, barrister, playwright, and creator of the Rumpole mystery series, says that, at 81, he's faced with a desire to decide "what, if anything, can be usefully dusted off and passed on." He decides to follow the example of his father, who left him the law, Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, and laughter. Reading this memoir is like sitting with someone very wise and very comical at an outdoor party crowded with guests. Your host interrupts his talk of his own life--the book is filled with bits from Mortimer's childhood, acting career, and adventures in the law--to fill you in on some of the guests. See Shakespeare over there? Mortimer's favorite characters from the Bard's plays were the sensible friends of the heroes. And the artist Velazquez? Mortimer's favorite work of the great artist is that of an old woman cooking eggs. Mortimer ranges widely, discoursing on the tyranny of political correctness, the pang of missed opportunities, and the rare gift of being able to listen, using both his own experiences and the wealth of what he's read to illuminate his subjects. There's some straightforward advice, too: live a varied, action-filled life; see happiness as a by-product, not a goal. But what emerges most forcefully from this leisurely meditation is a lively appreciation of how the legacy of past civilizations can make life vibrant. Mortimer is a companion you don't want to leave. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; 1 edition (December 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786281049
• ISBN-13: 978-0786281046
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,840,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's best to go out laughing, June 28, 2005

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Where There's a Will: Thoughts on the Good Life (Hardcover)

Not all of this is to my taste, but Mortimer is a wonderful comic writer with a really supreme sense of the foibles of human life and character. He takes nothing too seriously and certainly not himself and in these short chapters, thirty- two on all on various aspects of his life with the law, his family, he entertains and provides us perhaps one basic lesson: i.e.
If one has to go through it it's best to go through it with a smile. And if one has to go out, and one does have to go out, it's best to do it in laughter.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant, wise, and humorously self-effacing, August 7, 2006

By 

Paul J. Papanek "latoxdoc" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where There's a Will: Thoughts on the Good Life (Hardcover)

I should first confess my bias--I have often been tickled and sometimes awed by Mortimer's way with English prose for 20 years. So, in picking up this book I had the high expectations one might have before meeting an old friend or beloved teacher. No disappointment. Even if some of these essays are slightly less effervescent than others, all are at least wonderful, and several are both brilliant and touching.

Mortimer has given us a collection of short essays, conversational and often wryly funny, which he intends as a kind of spiritual bequeathal to his family and other heirs. The chapters range across a broad range of subjects, some perhaps outwardly frivolous, like the cooking of eggs. But in the main, Mortimer touches on matters of great substance--the nature of beauty, how to be happy, surprising ways in which our world has managed to be unjust, places and times for sex, how to dine sociably, the love of children, faith and reason, the terrors of the writer facing blank paper, and many more. I found these essays to be wise and absolutely delicious. I suspect that readers who have enjoyed Rumpole, or Mortimer's other biographical essays like Summer of a Doormouse, or Clinging to the Wreckage, will be quite pleased with these sketches.

Mortimer may, sadly, be nearing the end of his life, but at present he seems to be on a literary tear. I, for one, wish him many more prolific years.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rational Thoughts, April 11, 2006

By 

Sal (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where There's a Will: Thoughts on the Good Life (Hardcover)

Sir John Mortimer is an extremely literate and honestly open-minded person who writes with a flowing exquisiteness of the English language. This small book of his thoughts on a good life is a reminiscence of the life he has led and is still leading. He mentions a lot of classical literary authors and their characters that would further enrich a person's knowledge. Also, the various types of people he met working at the Old Bailey has surely enhanced his art of observing and putting their perspectives onto paper. Together with wild imaginations of his, no wonder his many writings are keenly absorbed by the public. The last ten chapters are my favorite but in each I find something to laugh out loud about. This is his own story and the way he tells it is invigorating. In not so many words in each section, he still succeeds in relaying his message that is predominantly deliberate.