Tag: John Mortimer

Rumpole: The Gentle Art of Blackmail & Other Stories

Rumpole: The Gentle Art of Blackmail & Other Stories

by John Mortimer; adapted by Richard Stoneman (BBC Audio, 2018)

Mortimer_Rumpole Gentle Art Blackmail

A collection of four radio adaptations. These follow the stories faithfully and offer a similar experience to the Rumpole audiobooks, the only notable difference being that the older and younger Rumpoles are voiced by different actors: Timothy West and Benedict Cumberbatch respectively.

 

 

The Trials of Rumpole

The Trials of Rumpole

by John Mortimer (Penguin, 1981); audiobook read by Bill Wallis (Bolinda, 2014)

Mortimer_Trials Rumpole

Rumpole continues in his oratorically pugilistic, poetic way to champion the virtues of impartial legal defence, winning when his clients are guilty and losing when they are innocent. The book has dated rather better than the show on which it was based.

 

 

Rumpole of the Bailey

Rumpole of the Bailey

by John Mortimer (Penguin, 1978); audiobook read by Robert Hardy (Bolinda, 2014)

Mortimer_Rumpole of the Bailey

Based on the TV series, this book is as much about the tribulations as the trials of Horace Rumpole, an eccentric and oft-thwarted, poetry-quoting English barrister. Rumpole’s wins may be pyrrhic at best, but are humorously bolstered by his free-flowing, sardonic ruminations.