{"title":"Books by John Mortimer","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780241398883","title":"Rumpole of the Bailey","description":"\u003cb\u003e'Rumpole, like Jeeves and Sherlock Holmes, is immortal' P. D. James\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHorace Rumpole - dishevelled barrister at law, drinker of claret and smoker of cigars, inveterate quoter of Wordsworth and eternal defender of the underdog - is one of the greatest English comic characters ever created. This is the original volume of Rumpole stories, introducing us to the legal triumphs that first made the Old Bailey Hack's name, along with a host of choice villains, frequent forays to Pommeroy's wine bar and, of course, his formidable, magisterial wife Hilda, She Who Must Be Obeyed.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I thank heaven for small mercies. The first of these is Rumpole' Clive James\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A fruity, foxy masterpiece, defender of our wilting faith in mankind' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201571324082,"sku":"9780241398883","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241398883_f17e335a-3fa1-443c-85d5-d2b2c28c9ca1.jpg?v=1786012391"},{"product_id":"9780140067682","title":"The First Rumpole Omnibus","description":"Who rose to enduring fame on Blood and Typewriters, told the pregnant Portia of the Chambers it would come out              in the end, advised Guthrie Featherstone, Q.C., to adopt a more judicial attitude, returned in the tender gloaming of              each evening-via Pommeroy's and a glass of Chateau Fleet Street- to She Who Must Be Obeyed? The answer is              Horace Rumpole whose legal triumphs, plundering stories into the Oxford Book of English Verse and              less-than-salubrious hat are celebrated here in this first omnibus edition.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223999754613,"sku":"9780140067682","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780140067682_df022b24-7b01-49a5-bb60-e13489242b07.jpg?v=1786011791"},{"product_id":"9780141039770","title":"Rumpole At Christmas","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe hilarious festive stories of John Mortimer's greatest character. Sure to get you in the mood for Christmas!\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Without Rumpole, the world would be a poorer place' \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHorace Rumpole is not overfond of the rituals of Christmas: turkey, tinsel and the like. But happily the festive season is not one respected by the criminal fraternity; meaning that celebrations in the Rumpole household are frequently disturbed in most-welcome ways.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere's the suspicious Father Christmas at Equity's Court's festive party. The actor who goes missing from the panto on the night of a major crime. As well as the body cluttering up the health farm (where the great barrister is gloomily restricted to a diet of yak's milk and steamed spinach to please She Who Must Be Obeyed).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese seven wonderful Rumpole stories show the great man at his sharpest, wittiest and best. Readers of \u003ci\u003eSherlock Holmes, \u003c\/i\u003eP.D. James and P.G. Wodehouse will love this book!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'One of the great comic creations of modern times' \u003ci\u003eEvening Standard\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'There is a truth in Rumpole that is told with brilliance and grace' \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Rumpole remains and absolute delight' \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56224580075893,"sku":"9780141039770","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141039770_84da8bea-de35-43e5-9610-4e6ca1a600f3.jpg?v=1786011826"},{"product_id":"9780141193397","title":"Paradise Postponed","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen Simeon Simcox, a socialist clergyman, leaves his entire fortune not to his family but to the ruthless, social-climbing Tory MP Leslie Titmuss, the Rector's two sons react in very different ways. Henry, novelist and former 'angry young man' turned grumpy old reactionary, decides to fight the will and prove their father was insane. Younger brother Fred, a mild-mannered country doctor, takes a different approach, quietly digging in Simeon's past, only to uncover an entirely unexpected explanation for the legacy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn exquisitely drawn saga of ancient rivalries and class struggles, featuring a glorious cast of characters, \u003ci\u003eParadise Postponed\u003c\/i\u003e is a delicious portrait of English country life by a master satirist.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56224596066677,"sku":"9780141193397","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141193397_d8a377c5-74d0-469c-bd31-6b70602ad85a.jpg?v=1786011766"},{"product_id":"9780141198293","title":"The Collected Stories of Rumpole","description":"\u003cp\u003eHorace Rumpole - witty, eloquent, dishevelled and cynical - is one of fiction's best-loved barristers-at-law. In these twenty classic tales, Rumpole battles through the Old Bailey, whether defending various members of an incompetent South London crime family, taking on haute-cuisine chefs and showfolk or mocking the pomposity of his own profession, all the while being held in check by his wife, Hilda: the wonderful, fearsome She Who Must Be Obeyed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese collected stories, in Penguin Modern Classics for the first time, are a definitive introduction to one of the wisest and wittiest characters in British comic writing and a reminder of what justice should really be about. With a new introduction by Sam Leith, former literary editor of the \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e and contributor to the \u003ci\u003eEvening Standard\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGuardian \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eSpectator\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56224613106037,"sku":"9780141198293","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141198293_d6318a88-9b51-4ff5-9202-49d84e9e7ca7.jpg?v=1786011009"},{"product_id":"9780241474440","title":"Rumpole's Return","description":"'A fruity, foxy masterpiece, defender of our wilting faith in mankind' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHorace Rumpole is in a strange state that could only be described as a kind of air-conditioned purgatory: he has retired to Florida with his wife, Hilda (She Who Must Be Obeyed). It is safely assumed the Old Bailey hack's wig has been hung up for good. But when a rather unkempt civil servant is mixed up in the mysterious death of a minor aristocrat, Rumpole seizes the opportunity to escape a life of leisure. He is soon back in court (via a budget airline) to do battle once more with Judge 'Mad Bull' Bullingham.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56228826513781,"sku":"9780241474440","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"9780670919376","title":"Forever Rumpole","description":"\u003ci\u003eForever Rumpole\u003c\/i\u003e - a hilarious new selection of the very best Rumpole stories by John Mortimer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHorace Rumpole lives alongside Mr Pickwick and Bertie Wooster as one of the immortal comic characters in English fiction. With his curmudgeonly wit, his literary allusions, his disdain for personal ambition and his lack of pomposity, he has, in the words of the Daily Telegraph, 'ascended to the pantheon of literary immortals'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eForever Rumpole\u003c\/i\u003e contains seven stories originally chosen by the author himself as his favourites, together with a further seven from the later period and the opening chapters of a Rumpole novel that Sir John was working on when he died in 2009. The book also includes a fascinating introduction by Ann Mallalieu, fellow lawyer and for many years Sir John's colleague in practice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Rumpole, like Jeeves and Sherlock Holmes, is immortal' P. D James, \u003ci\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I thank heaven for small mercies. The first of these is Rumpole' Clive James, \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSir John Mortimer was a barrister, playwright and novelist. His fictional trilogy about the inexorable rise of an ambitious Tory MP in the Thatcher years (\u003ci\u003eParadise Postponed, Titmuss Regained\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Sound of Trumpets\u003c\/i\u003e) has recently been republished in Penguin Classics, together with \u003ci\u003eClinging to the Wreckage\u003c\/i\u003e and his play \u003ci\u003eA Voyage round My Father\u003c\/i\u003e. His most famous creation was the barrister Horace Rumpole, who featured in four novels and around eighty short stories. His books in Penguin include: \u003ci\u003eThe Anti-social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole; The Collected Stories of Rumpole; The First Rumpole Omnibus; Rumpole and the Angel of Death; Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders; Rumpole and the Primrose Path; Rumpole and the Reign of Terror; Rumpole and the Younger Generation; Rumpole at Christmas; Rumpole Rests His Case; The Second Rumpole Omnibus; Forever Rumpole; In Other Words; Quite Honestly \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eSummer's Lease\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56293973098869,"sku":"9780670919376","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780670919376_c40f5ae0-06ef-4442-a304-a9eb56d1af57.jpg?v=1786014880"},{"product_id":"9780141034874","title":"Summer's Lease","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSummer's Lease\u003c\/i\u003e - the classic, international bestselling novel by John Mortimer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Amusing, entertaining ... and a cracking good read' \u003ci\u003eSunday Express\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'And summer's lease hath all too short a date' - \u003ci\u003eSonnet 18\u003c\/i\u003e, William Shakespeare\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt's high summer when Molly Pargeter drags her amiably bickering family to a rented Tuscan villa for the holidays. Molly is sure that the house is the perfect setting for their three-week getaway, but soon she becomes fascinated by the lives of the absent owners - and things start to go horribly wrong ... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'With a cosy fluency of wit, Mortimer charms us into his urbane tangle of clues' \u003ci\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSummer's Lease, \u003c\/i\u003ewhich was made into popular BBC TV mini-series starring John Gielgud, is a delightful novel from Rumpole author John Mortimer: witty, compassionate, humane, perfectly plotted and wonderfully readable. It will be adored by readers of P.G Wodehouse and P.D. James.\u003cbr\u003e Sir John Mortimer was a barrister, playwright and novelist. His fictional political trilogy of \u003ci\u003eParadise Postponed, Titmuss Regained\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Sound of Trumpets\u003c\/i\u003e has recently been republished in Penguin Classics, together with \u003ci\u003eClinging to the Wreckage\u003c\/i\u003e and his play \u003ci\u003eA Voyage round My Father\u003c\/i\u003e. His most famous creation was the barrister Horace Rumpole, who featured in four novels and around eighty short stories. His books in Penguin include: \u003ci\u003eThe Anti-social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole; The Collected Stories of Rumpole; The First Rumpole Omnibus; Rumpole and the Angel of Death; Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders; Rumpole and the Primrose Path; Rumpole and the Reign of Terror; Rumpole and the Younger Generation; Rumpole at Christmas; Rumpole Rests His Case; The Second Rumpole Omnibus; Forever Rumpole; In Other Words; Quite Honestly \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eSummer's Lease\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311567745397,"sku":"9780141034874","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141034874_d6540c08-2f50-48a6-9f7d-144699d44925.jpg?v=1786032699"},{"product_id":"the-trials-of-rumpole","title":"The Trials of Rumpole","description":"\u003cb\u003e'I thank heaven for small mercies. The first of these is Rumpole' Clive James\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHorace Rumpole, the irrepressible barrister fuelled by cigars, Tennyson, steak-and-kidney pud and the cooking claret from Pommeroy's wine bar, is back for further misadventures. Amid an unfortunate and temporary downturn in London crime, the Old Bailey Hack sits in Chambers (he never writes at home for fear of She Who Must Be Obeyed) and picks up his pen to recount six classic tales of his recent trials. Here he deals with, among others, a clergyman on a shoplifting rampage, a backstage theatrical murder, a villain with unfortunate sartorial taste and, worst of all, the possibility that he may have to hang up his wig and retire. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Rumpole, like Jeeves and Sherlock Holmes, is immortal' P. D. James","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466644496757,"sku":"9780241474433","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241474433.jpg?v=1785654702"},{"product_id":"anti-social-behaviour-of-horace-rumpole","title":"The Anti-social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Anti-social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole \u003c\/i\u003e- a delightful novel starring John Mortimer's iconic character\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'One of the great comic creations of modern times' \u003ci\u003eEvening Standard\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eASBOs may be the pride and joy of New Labour, but they don't cut much ice with Horace Rumpole - he takes the old-fashioned view that if anyone is going to be threatened with a restriction of their liberty then some form of legal proceeding ought to be gone through first. Not that Hilda agrees, of course, but she's too busy completing her memoirs to dissuade him from taking an interest when one of the Timson children is given an ASBO for playing football in the street. And pretty soon he realizes something fishy is going on. Why are the residents pursuing their vendetta against the Timson boy quite so strongly? Could they have a sinister reason for not wanting him on their street?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn Mortimer's hilarious Rumpole novel, which fans of \u003ci\u003eSherlock Holmes\u003c\/i\u003e and P.G. Wodehouse will love, sees the magician of the Old Bailey at his unpredictable and brilliant best.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSir John Mortimer was a barrister, playwright and novelist. His fictional trilogy about the inexorable rise of an ambitious Tory MP in the Thatcher years (\u003ci\u003eParadise Postponed, Titmuss Regained\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Sound of Trumpets\u003c\/i\u003e) has recently been republished in Penguin Classics, together with his autobiography \u003ci\u003eClinging to the Wreckage\u003c\/i\u003e and his play \u003ci\u003eA Voyage round My Father\u003c\/i\u003e. His most famous creation was the barrister Horace Rumpole, who featured in four novels and around eighty short stories. His books in Penguin include: \u003ci\u003eThe Anti-social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole; The Collected Stories of Rumpole; The First Rumpole Omnibus; Rumpole and the Angel of Death; Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders; Rumpole and the Primrose Path; Rumpole and the Reign of Terror; Rumpole and the Younger Generation; Rumpole at Christmas; Rumpole Rests His Case; The Second Rumpole Omnibus; Forever Rumpole; In Other Words; Quite Honestly \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eSummer's Lease\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57492163166581,"sku":"9780141030647","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141030647.jpg?v=1786528963"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-john-mortimer.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}