John Mortimer Books In Order

Rumpole of the Bailey Books In Publication Order

  1. Rumpole of the Bailey (1978)
  2. Rumpole’s Return (1980)
  3. The Trials of Rumpole (1981)
  4. Regina V. Rumpole (1981)
  5. Rumpole for the Defence (1982)
  6. Rumpole and the Golden Thread (1983)
  7. Rumpole for the Prosecution (1986)
  8. Rumpole’s Last Case (1988)
  9. Rumpole and the Age of Miracles (1989)
  10. Rumpole and the Age for Retirement (1989)
  11. Rumpole a La Carte (1991)
  12. Rumpole on Trial (1992)
  13. The Best of Rumpole (1993)
  14. Rumpole and the Younger Generation (1995)
  15. Rumpole and the Angel of Death (1995)
  16. Rumpole Rests His Case (2002)
  17. Rumpole and the Primrose Path (2003)
  18. Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (2004)
  19. Rumpole and the Reign of Terror (2006)
  20. The Anti-Social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole / Rumpole Misbehaves (2007)
  21. Rumpole at Christmas / A Rumpole Christmas (2009)
  22. Forever Rumpole (2011)

Rapstone Chronicles Books In Publication Order

  1. Paradise Postponed (1985)
  2. Titmuss Regained Tie In (1990)
  3. The Sound of Trumpets (1998)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Charade (1947)
  2. Like Men Betrayed (1953)
  3. The Narrowing Stream (1954)
  4. Summer’s Lease (1985)
  5. Dunster (1992)
  6. Felix In The Underworld (1996)
  7. Quite Honestly (2005)

Chapbooks In Publication Order

  1. The Scales of Justice (2005)

Plays In Publication Order

  1. A Voyage Round My Father. John Mortimer (1971)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. The Fear Of Heaven (1978)
  2. Clinging to the Wreckage (1982)
  3. Character Parts (1986)
  4. The Oxford Book of Villains (1992)
  5. Murderers and Other Friends (1994)
  6. The Summer of a Dormouse (2000)
  7. Where There’s a Will (2003)
  8. Zerah Colburn – Spirit of Darkness (2005)
  9. In Other Words (2008)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. Great Law and Order Stories (1990)
  2. Death Cruise: Crime Stories on the Open Seas (1999)
  3. A Christmas Anthology (2011)

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John Mortimer Books Overview

Rumpole of the Bailey

These six short stories introduce all the lovable or not so lovable characters from the delightful Rumpole series. Horace Rumpole, the irreverent, iconoclastic, claret swilling, poetry spouting barrister at law, is among the most beloved characters of English crime literature. He is not a particularly gifted attorney, nor is he particularly fond of the law by courts if it comes to that, but he’d rather be swinging at a case than bowing to his wife Hilda, She Who Must Be Obeyed. In this first title of the popular series featuring Rumpole, all of the major characters who occupy the Rumpole stories make their introductions: the sneaky, slightly effeminate Erskine Brown, the bumbling Guthrie Featherstone and various and sundry other lawyers and clerks whose lives weave in and out of these stories. These six stories include: Rumpole and the Younger Generation, Rumpole and the Alternative Society, Rumpole and the Honourable Member, Rumpole and the Married Lady, Rumpole and the Learned Friends, and Rumpole and the Heavy Brigade.

Rumpole’s Return

Has Rumpole hung up his wig for good? Can it be? Yes, the beloved barrister is now retired though far from retiring and gently ripening to a rosy hue in the Florida sunshine. But a colleague’s casual request for advice on a difficult case sends him winging back across the Atlantic, and before he’s through, our hero will come up against a fanatical religious cult and a mysterious letter written in his own blood…

The Trials of Rumpole

This is the Audiobook Cassette Library Edition in vinyl case. Read by Frederick Davidson Horace Rumpole who never prosecutes, whose fame rests on an infinite knowledge of blood and typewriters, whose court scenes are proverbial, whose home is ruled by Mrs. Rumpole ”She Who Must Be Obeyed” is back on the defense, as irreverent, as iconoclastic, as claret swilling, poetry spouting, impudent, witty, and cynical as ever. This time the judge debunking barrister at law is embroiled with a minister accused of shoplifting, an actress accused of murder, and a racist candidate for Parliament, with art theft and mistaken identity thrown in for good measure. The result is a delightful excursion into hidden corners of the British judicial system served up in typically colorful Rumpole style. Stories include: Rumpole and the Man of God Rumpole and the Showfolk Rumpole and the Fascist Beast Rumpole and the Case of Identity Rumpole and the Course of True Love and Rumpole and the Age for Retirement.

Rumpole for the Defence

This is the Audiobook CASSETTE Library Edition in vinyl case. Read by Frederick Davidson Whether he’s quoting Wordsworth or having words with a particularly obtuse judge, Horace Rumpole always knows what he’s doing even if no one else does. In this delightful collection of stories, Rumpole straightens everyone out in the shocking case of a ”bent copper,” gallantly teaches a professor of moral philosophy about blackmail, consults with the dear departed when a will is contested, traces the path of true love when a doctor is accused of murder, and in the name of duty, of course drinks to excess with a teetotaling member of the prosecution. There is even a rare moment or two when Rumpole finds himself appreciative of ”She Who Must Be Obeyed” Mrs. Rumpole, when she inadvertently provides some essential clues that clinch his cases. Stories in this collection include: ”Rumpole for the Defense,” ”Rumpole and the Gentle Art of Blackmail,” ”Rumpole and the Dear Departed,” ”Rumpole and the Rotten Apple,” ”Rumpole and the Expert Witness,” ”Rumpole and the Spirit of Christmas,” and ”Rumpole and the Boat People.”

Rumpole and the Golden Thread

The Chivers Audio Books range includes the very best of contemporary and classic fiction, specially packaged for libraries. Chivers Audio Books prides itself on producing recordings with nothing left out and nothing altered, so the listener can hear every word the author wrote, brought to life by some of the best actors in the world. And to control the quality of Chivers’ titles, Chivers uses its own studios located in the beautiful city of Bath, England, which have been specifically designed for recording unabridged audiobooks. For more than twenty years, the dedicated Chivers team of editors and producers has successfully created the best full length recordings of the original books. Chivers Audio Books are read by the best actors and are second to none in terms of quality. Indeed, as the pioneers and oldest established publishers of unabridged audio in the UK, Chivers’ backlist is quite simply the largest and the best! So when you select an audiobook from the Chivers list, you can be sure to hear every word, every time. The Chivers Audio Book range includes the very best of contemporary and classic fiction, specially packaged for libraries.

Rumpole for the Prosecution

A Horace Rumpole Novel. 2 cassettes.

Rumpole on Trial

Six of these seven stories follow Rumpole as he pursues his legal cases doggedly determined to secure justice at all costs. The last tale features the barrister himself as a defendant accused of unethical conduct. Rumpole is simply one of the greatest fictional characters of modern English literature. The Times London What gives these stories their special flavor…
is the way that Rumpole pokes at judicial pomposity. The New York Times

The Best of Rumpole

The lovable, irreverent, claret swigging, Wordsworth spouting criminal lawyer returns to the fray to fight new battles against injustice. Stories such as ‘Rumpole and the Younger Generation’ and ‘Rumpole and the Showfolk’ are included. Rumpole is featured in an ITV series.

Rumpole and the Angel of Death

The Selling Edge explores the changing business environment and identifies the tools and techniques required to make your salespeople more efficient, more responsive, and, as a result, more successful in this highly competitive sales environment. It focuses on business to business selling and takes a comprehensive look at top performing salespeople, identifying the methods and procedures that have made them successful. This book breaks new ground by concentrating on challenges facing the sales manager, detailing the steps to be taken to develop a high performance sales organization, and recognizing the pitfalls to be avoided. With the downsizing of corporate America, business customers have no time to waste. Many businesses are being called upon to do more with less. They expect sales organizations to answer their needs in a fast and efficient manner. Companies will not accept delays in responding to their questions, nor will they accept proposals that focus on product features rather than on solutions to their business problems. With increased competition, sales organizations must work longer and harder to maintain and increase their sales. Top management of any succcessful corporation also must understand the problems of sales, and good sales managers must know how to work with and obtain the best results from their sales team. Levokove shows how to build and maintain a highly motivated sales organization.

Rumpole Rests His Case

Fans old and new will welcome this brand new volume in John Mortimer’s hugely popular series Horace Rumpole’s first appearance in six years. The comic, courageous, and corpulent ‘great defender of muddled and sinful humanity’ reenters the fray in a book that sends up the British legal system as deftly as ever. Rumpole Rests His Case brings us seven fresh and funny stories in which Horace triumphs over the forces of prejudice and mean mindedness while he tiptoes precariously through the domestic territory of his wife Hilda She Who Must Be Obeyed. With his passion for Wordsworth, his kindly disposition toward the defendant, and a nose equally sensitive to the whiff of wrongdoing and the bouquet of a Ch teau Thames Embankment, the disheveled Rumpole is back and in impeccable form perhaps for the last time?

Rumpole and the Primrose Path

With Rumpole Rests His Case, legions of fans welcomed back the curmudgeonly London barrister they had loved for years and they are eager for more. The six new stories in Rumpole and the Primrose Path find Horace Rumpole despite a heart attack that left him at death’s door in the previous volume deftly parrying everything from the admonitions of his wife, Hilda, to the vagaries of his legal colleagues and their new director of marketing, Luci. With her cell phone, corporate jargon, glossy brochures, and plans to give their chambers a new image, Luci presumes Rumpole is soon to expire, and has been planning his memorial service. But the witty and irreverent Rumpole, sharp as ever, is far from hanging up his wig!

Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders

One of the most enduring and endearing literary characters ever to come out of Britain, Horace Rumpole has often alluded to the Penge Bungalow murders in the many stories of his cases, but fans have never before been privy to the tantalizing details. With trademark wit, Rumpole recalls memoir style the case that established his reputation, and at the same time clears up mysteries about his early days most significantly, how his wife Hilda ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed’ first came to darken his door. In the case itself, occurring some years after World War II, a young man has been accused of murdering his father and his father’s friend, both ex RAF pilots. At first a mere junior on the case, young Rumpole risks ruffling feathers with his dogged determination to secure justice and ends up defending the accused on his own. Accomplished performer Bill Wallis gives voice to this treat for Rumpoleans and mystery fans alike.

Rumpole and the Reign of Terror

The bestselling barrister is back and ready to take on his most timely case yet

When Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders John Mortimer’s first Rumpole novel ever debuted last year, devoted fans came to it in droves. Now, just in time for Christmas, Mortimer returns with another Rumpole novel to tackle a truly relevant topic with his signature wit and style.

While defending a mind numbingly dull theft charge, Rumpole finds that the new terrorist laws have hamstrung his beloved courts. Meanwhile, a Pakistani doctor has been imprisoned without charge or trial under suspicion of aiding al Qaeda in its plans for a terrorist attack. With the doctor s wife begging him to help her husband, the Great Defender is determined to bring the case before a jury.

Trouble is also brewing at home as Hilda She Who Must Be Obeyed sits down to write her own memoirs describing her view of Rumpole and her own love life. Rumpole s battle on the home front threatens to derail his case but where there s a Rumpole, there s a way!

The Anti-Social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole / Rumpole Misbehaves

ASBOs 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? John Mortimer’s delightful new Rumpole novel sees the magician of the Old Bailey, and Pommeroy’s Wine Bar, at his implacable best as he defends our ancient freedoms, even as he remains uneasy about what it is exactly Hilda is writing.

Rumpole at Christmas / A Rumpole Christmas

The first ever collection of Rumpole Christmas stories just in time for the holidays A Rumpole Christmas is a collection of five holiday stories never before published in book form depicting the Old Bailey Hack at his lovable best. In ‘Rumpole and Father Christmas,’ the English barrister encounters a familiar looking Santa who he thinks is a thief. In ‘Rumpole’s Slimmed Down Christmas,’ he goes to a new age spa when ‘She who must be obeyed’ insists that he lose a few pounds. In ‘Rumpole and the Christmas Break,’ he protects Hilda as a shady judge flirts with her while on a holiday that turns out to be anything but relaxing. Witty and compulsively readable, this irresistible new collection will provide solace to the legions of fans lamenting John Mortimer’s death early this year.

Forever Rumpole

A wonderful collection, starring the world’s most beloved barrister, including a fragment of a new Rumpole story. John Mortimer died in 2009, but will never be forgotten. While still a practicing barrister, Mortimer took up the pen, and the rest is literary history. His stories featuring the cigar chomping, cheap winetippling Rumpole and his wife, Hilda aka ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed’, have justly earned their place in the pantheon of mystery fiction legends. The stories became a very successful PBS television series starring Leo McKern as Rumpole. Forever Rumpole brings together fourteen of Rumpole’s most entertaining adventures, together with a fragment of a new story. Rumpole is never less than delightful and this new collection is a fitting tribute to an indelible character and his remarkable creator.

Paradise Postponed

When 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. An exquisitely drawn saga of ancient rivalries and class struggles, featuring a glorious cast of characters, ‘Paradise Postponed‘ is a delicious portrait of English country life by a master satirist.

Titmuss Regained Tie In

The Right Honourable Leslie Titmuss, the abrasive high flyer who rose from poverty to power in ‘Paradise Postponed’, is now Secretary of State at H.E.A.P. The Ministry of Housing, Ecological Affairs and Planning, and in pursuit of the beautiful Jenny Sidoniar, widow of a socialist Oxford don.

The Sound of Trumpets

The Sound of Trumpets is the third installment in The Rapstone Chronicles, and John Mortimer’s social savvy dazzles once again. With the literary brilliance of Anthony Trollope and the savage wit of Christopher Buckley, Mortimer skewers political friends and foes with equal grace. In this cunning portrait of the British class system and parliamentary politics, it is the new Labour government that bears the brunt of Mortimer’s clever jabs. The merciless, avaricious antihero of Titmuss Regained and Paradise Postponed, Leslie Titmuss MP, has been deposed and the excess and greed of the 1980s have vanished. Paradise is here in the form of Terry Flitton, a deadly accurate incarnation of the new centrist politician only too familiar on both sides of the Atlantic. Under Flitton’s reign, a whole new world free of class distinction and full of biting, mischievous social comedy emerges.

Like Men Betrayed

Set in London, this book is the sinister tale of a middle aged solicitor and his hopeless attempts, both spiritual and real, to find his son and that son’s search for his father.

Summer’s Lease

The official tie in to Masterpiece Theatre’s May presentation of Summer’s Lease, starring John Gielgud. The villa near a small Tuscan town is everything the Pargeter family could want for three weeks. But when the idyll turns sour, Molly Pargeter begins to wonder about their mysterious absentee landlord.

Dunster

Follows the story of two men locked in an adversarial friendship at school, through Oxford, and on to the competitive world of commercialism, success and marriage. Set in London, the novel culminates in a trial scene.

Felix In The Underworld

Once dubbed the ‘Chekhov of Coldsands on Sea,’ Felix Morsom has made a decent living writing sensitive, well received novels of middle class life in a seaside town. Though he was once a bestselling author short listed for the Booker Prize, his life is now rather ordinary. Separated after a childless marriage, Felix’s only excitement is Brenda Bodkin, his publicist, and their endlessly unconsummated passion. But a bolt out of the blue a paternity suit hinted at in an anonymous tape received in the mail and a subsequent threat at a book signing leads to a murder case in which Felix finds himself the chief suspect. Forced into London’s underworld of poverty and crime, Felix manages to find friendship and even grace. With his characteristic humor and pathos, John Mortimer has created a novel that is both tender and perceptive, and a marvelous parody of the book trade he knows so well.

Quite Honestly

The creator of Rumpole of the Bailey returns to the novel with a comic tale of middle class do gooding gone awry

Thousands of readers have discovered the inimitable voice of John Mortimer through his Rumpole series of stories. But with Quite Honestly, Mortimer creates a cast of characters that rivals his usual Rumpole repertoire, delivering a wonderfully comic novel, packed with entertaining reflections on a life in crime.

Life couldn t be better for Lucinda Purefoy. She’s got a steady boyfriend, a degree in social sciences from Manchester University, and the offer of a high powered job in advertising. With all this good fortune, isn t it appropriate for her to give something back to society?

With her newly minted membership in Social Carers, Reformers, and Praeceptors SCRAP for short, an organization that recruits women to become the guides, philosophers, and friends to ex convicts coming out of prison, Lucy finds herself standing outside the gates of Wormwood Scrubs waiting to greet a career burglar called Terry Keegan. What happens next after a short and hostile trip to Burger King confounds expectations and produces a signature Mortimer tale full of wit and surprise.

A Voyage Round My Father. John Mortimer

In John Mortimer’s most famous and highly autobiographical play, a young man looks back on an unconventional childhood and youth overshadowed by his irascible and eccentric father. Sent away to boarding school to be ‘prepared for life’, he finds teachers deranged by shell shock after the First World War and boys who try to coat their ordinary home lives with romance. As the Second World War begins, the mild-mannered protagonist tries to become a writer, but is compelled to become a barrister like his father – a towering character depicted with affection and exasperation. Hugely popular since it was first performed, ‘A Voyage Round My Father’ is a sublimely comic drama of warmth, nostalgia and wisdom.

Clinging to the Wreckage

In the first volume of his bestselling autobiography, novelist, playwright and former barrister John Mortimer relates all the pleasures and paradoxes of his early life. With wit and style, he takes us from his unusual childhood his father, a blind barrister, insisted that his wife read the sordid details of his divorce briefs in public to the dilemmas of his life in the law one of his clients indignantly declared, ‘Your Mr Rumpole could’ve gotten me out of this, why the hell can’t you!’. Filled with laughter and a sense of the absurd, ‘Clinging to the Wreckage‘ is an extraordinary insight into the rich life of one of the great figures of our time.

Murderers and Other Friends

Throughout John Mortimer’s career, he established profound friendships with people accused of various crimes. He also indulged his passion for writing, penning Paradise Postponed and a series of stories about Rumpole, for whom he was often mistaken. With wit, wisdom and tenderness he has written the story of his life.

The Summer of a Dormouse

John Mortimer has led an extraordinary life as a playwright, bestselling novelist, and former practicing barrister. In The Summer of a Dormouse, the third installment of his autobiography, he describes what it is like to be seventy seven years of age but to feel like a child. While he suffers from the afflictions that his father had to contend with asthma, glaucoma and added some of his own, he continues to live with boundless energy, passion, and humor. The Summer of a Dormouse is a warm and charming chronicle of one year in a rich and very full life. When most people his age are in full retirement, John Mortimer is still motoring through life, taking on new projects working on a film with Zeffirelli in a house in Rome, contriving the renovation of the Royal Court Theatre building, and championing his most passionate cause, prison reform. Whether in the English countryside, the center of London, the heart of Tuscany, or the streets of Morocco, he embraces life and work with enthusiasm and compassion, revealing himself as one of the most astute and generous figures of his generation.

Zerah Colburn – Spirit of Darkness

Zerah Colburn was a well known nineteenth century locomotive engineer, journalist and publisher. In life he mixed with the famous men of engineering in America and Britain. Ans he was among 200 leading Americans nominated for New York University’s Hall of Fame. But Colburn was an enigma, a dark and irascible man with a violent temper. His work colleagues in London called him the ‘Spirit of Darkness’. But why did he shoot himself at the age of 38 at the height of his career?

Great Law and Order Stories

The creator of the irrepressible barrister sleuth, Rumpole of the Old Bailey, presents a superb collection of classic tales of mystery and suspense. With stories by such authors as P.D. James and Charles Dickens, Conan Doyle and Raymond Chandler, Edgar Allan Poe and John Mortimer himself, this anthology explores new dimensions in crime writing.

Death Cruise: Crime Stories on the Open Seas

‘Death Cruise’: Crime Stories on the Open Sea, edited by Lawrence Block, is a collection of murder mysteries with settings aboard cruise ships and written by several members of the International Association of Crime Writers, including Agatha Christie, Nancy Pickard, Piet Teigeler, Edward D. Hoch, Ralph McInerny, John Mortimer, and Carolyn Wheat.

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