Rumpolestillgoin (Rumpole Rests His Case - John Mortimer)

Member Name: pje

Product:	Rumpole Rests His Case - John Mortimer
Date:	16/12/01 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Social critique made funny, featuring old familiar characters.

Disadvantages: I wanted more.

Hooray! Seven new cases for Rumpole of the Bailey - the first since 1996.

Sir John Mortimer became famous in the 1970's, as the barrister charged with defending (unsuccessfully) the editors of the controversial magazine Oz, and later as a playwright and the creator of Rumpole of the Bailey.
Rather more like the author than Perry Mason, Rumpole didn't always win.

Horace Rumpole being a droll old barrister at the Central Criminal Court
(that's the Old Bailey to you guv'nor) who defends but never prosecutes. A henpecked husband, who refers to his wife Hilda as She Who Must Be Obeyed, Rumpole was memorably portrayed by Leo McKern in seven Thames television series between 1978 and 1992.

All the old familiar characters put in an appearance here:-The ineffectual Claude Erskine-Brown and his fragrant wife Phillida, a.k.a. Portia, a.k.a. Mrs. Justice Erskine-Brown now; Liz Probert; Guthrie Featherstone QC; Soapy Sam Ballard; Judge Bullingham etc.


In RUMPOLE AND THE OLD FAMILIAR FACES, 'She Who Must Be Obeyed'
(Rumpole's wife Hilda) drags Rumpole off to the Arctic Circle for Christmas (well, Norfolk to be strictly accurate) with one of Hilda's old school friends and her husband, the rector of the local church. He also has to take the Erskine-Brown's twins (Tristan and Isolde!) to a pantomime, and defend
a young member of the Timson family (regular customers over the years) who stands accused of blowing the safe of a supermarket in Croydon.
It's like meeting old friends and finding out they haven't changed a bit. Predictable, but enjoyable.

The skeleton of a young woman is discovered under the floorboards of a house being demolished in RUMPOLE AND THE REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST, and it falls to Rumpole to defend the original occupant of the house, who quotes the Book of Revelation, and whose wife disappeared in 1968.
Meanwhile, Rumpole attempts to thwart th
e forces of political correctness who are blasé about cannabis, but won't let him smoke his beloved cigars in his own office!

Written before September 11th, RUMPOLE AND THE ASYLUM SEEKERS begins with the discovery of ten Afghan refugees in a lorry at Dover,
and encompasses the topical issues of immigration, the withdrawal of the right to trial by jury, and New Labour spin doctors (as Rumpole is courted by a minister from the Home Office: "Ours is a government of barristers... but we're always needing more.")

John Mortimer/Rumpole's portrayal of New Labour as middle class liberals, too nice to name and shame nasty foreign governments like the Taliban, and cynically determined not to rock any boats by implementing the ethical foreign policy they promised, rang true with me. I dearly hope that a few members of the government find this book in their Christmas stockings.

Meanwhile, She Who Must Be Obeyed has decided that the Rumpole residence would benefit from some re-styling care of one of those make-over television shows, resulting in some laugh-out-loud funny moments.
If you only read one short story this year (or next year) make it this one.

Like all hardbacks it's absurdly over-priced, so check your local libraries, you never know... Don't think you can wait for it to be filmed for ITV1 - they only seem to be interested in soaps 'n' sirens these days.

In RUMPOLE AND THE CAMBERWELL CARROT, while the Erskine-Browns are undergoing a trial separation, Phillida falls for a hard-right-wing Member
of Parliament after an argument over whether George W. Bush is a total dickhead. When this MP, who has called for the imprisonment of first-time drug users, is caught smoking a spliff, Phillida asks Rumpole to defend him.

All of these stories are 30-40 pages long, the exception being the very short tale of RUMPOLE AND THE ACTOR LADDIE, in which Rumpole's client -
a th
espian luvvy accused of stealing a ring - refuses to say whether he did it or not. He is intent on making the dock his stage...

John Mortimer uses his Rumpole stories to explore new trends in society and the issues of the day, so it was inevitable that he would dip his toe into the wwwater. In RUMPOLE AND THE TEENAGE WEREWOLF, a sixteen-year-old boy is accused of harrassment, by e-mail, of a girl at college. There is a glimpse of Rumpole's youth, but it is all-too-brief. That's the downside of the brevity these tales, there's no time for any real depth.

In his first literary outing in 1978, Rumpole of the Bailey was nearly 68,
so our old friend (and narrator) should really be in his nineties by now.
It's hardly surprising then, that after summing up his defence of a woman on trial for stabbing her budgerigar-throttling hubby, he keels over and ends up hospitalized at the start of RUMPOLE RESTS HIS CASE.
She Who Must Be Obeyed insists that he will have to give up the Bar:

"All these criminals you're so fond of defending will just have to go off
to prison quietly, and about time too, if you want my opinion, Rumpole."

But, wouldn't you know it, the occupant of the next bed turns out to be
a young man who has been shot while allegedly burgling a country house.
Another example of the way he uses a topical scenario as a starting point for a story. OK, it's a bit like watching a magician pull a rabbit from a hat which has clearly got a rabbit in it, in that the 'twists' are really obvious. But the witty observations on society, and old familiar characters, make every Rumpole story an enjoyable little treat.

Super entertainment - and about time too, if you want my opinion.
I hope Rumpole is still smoking his cheroots and drinking Château Thames Embankment in Pommeroy's Wine Bar when he should be over a hundred.


P.S.
Rumpole and
the Old Familiar Faces is on Radio 4 at 4pm on Christmas Day

¶ Hardback: £16.99 ¶ ISBN: 0670910856 ¶ pp 211 ¶
¶ Paperback: £6.99 ¶ ISBN: 0141003723 ¶ pp 224 ¶ July 2002 ¶
¶ Audiobook: £8.99 ¶ ISBN: 014180341X ¶ ~ 3 hrs ¶ abridged ¶
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