In Rumpole's last outing, Rumpole Rests His Case (2002), Mortimer's beloved barrister suffered a near-fatal heart attack, but as shown in this delicious new story collection, Rumpole still has plenty ...

(“Rumpole and the Reign of Terror” by John Mortimer, Viking, 184 pages, $23.95). Hilda is secretly writing her memoirs, and the Timson family is in need of legal help again. Which is to say that ...

My editor, a good and wise man, suggested that for Christmas Day we might seek kinder, gentler fare than the serial killers, ax murderers and insane cannibals who often populate these reviews. He even ...

It is difficult to say at the conclusion of “Rumpole Rests His Case” whether an obituary is called for. On the final page, Horace Rumpole, 67, barrister, drifts off, but whether it’s just to sleep or ...

THE British barrister, like the American trial lawyer, may often be something of a dramatist, combining the roles of playwright, actor and director in planning and presenting a case before the ...

For years now, fans of the redoubtable British barrister Horace Rumpole have heard him make references to the groundbreaking murder trial that first put him on the map. Now, at long last, his creator, ...

Mortimer's many fans on both sides of the Atlantic will delight in Horace Rumpole's return after a six-year hiatus in this amusing collection of the gruff but lovable barrister's latest exploits. The ...

A RUMPOLE CHRISTMAS: STORIES By John Mortimer Viking, $21.95, 176 pages REVIEWED BY MURIEL DOBBIN Christmas without Rumpole would be like Christmas without Scrooge. Indeed they had in common a “Bah ...