Rumpole of the Bailey

Written by John Mortimer

Narrated by Patrick Tull

This first title in the popular mystery series by playwright and novelist John Mortimer features Horace Rumpole, an English barrister who stands before the jury with the flourish of a Shakespearean actor and the ingenuity of a Sherlock Holmes. Rumpole—expert on bloodstains and fingerprint forgery—who has a wit so dry and razor sharp that most of his duller colleagues miss its cutting edge entirely; who prefers, nay depends upon a daily nip of Pommeroy’s ordinary claret; who recites Matthew Arnold at the most opportune of moments (such as when his wife Hilda, alias “She Who Must Be Obeyed,” requests a new set of slipcovers); and who disdains privilege at the very moment he is most enjoying it.

This selection includes six short stories: 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 lives as flagrantly on the page as on the box, a fruity, foxy masterpiece, defender of our wilting faith in mankind.”—New York Times

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 8, 2011
• ISBN: 9781461811589

John Mortimer

Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE was born in April 1923. After studying at Oxford he was called to the bar at the age of 25, later becoming a QC. He is a celebrated dramatist, screenwriter and author; his most famous creation, Horace Rumpole, appeared in Rumpole of the Bailey, a television series which was later complemented by short stories, novels and radio programmes. Mortimer died in January 2009.

Reviews for Rumpole of the Bailey

[Elizabeth Payne · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Always love Rumpole, that quintessential English lawyer who believes in the workings of the law down to a T?

[jgcorrea-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

His dogged defense of the common people, and yes, also the upper crust at times, is what makes him a good heart. His stories are gold. His fellow barristers combine all the good and bad qualities anyone can imagine. We wish him all the best in his quest for simple pleasures: old hats, cheap cigars, and decent wine. We always look forward to the next episode.

[geoffhabiger · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This collection of six stories was published in 1978 and features the indomitable barrister Horace Rumpole as he faces a series of different crimes (and the odd divorce). Rumpole is a man of his times. He quotes poetry (Wordsworth and Keats) and Shakespeare, is a heavy drinker, smoker of small cigars, slightly misogynistic, and a man who is irreverent of marriage (he constantly refers to his wife as "She who must be obeyed") and irreverent of the law. Which is rather odd for a barrister (or lawyer, for those in the United States). He flies in the face on convention, is a man set in his ways, and enjoys rocking the boat. Rumpole would rather look for the truth rather than just serving the law, doing what he knows to be right even in the face of opposition.

Rumpole's flaws are what make him endearing (when viewed through a lens of history and remembering when John Mortimer wrote the character). The six stories in this collection cover a range of years from the 1960s to the late 1970s and follow in chronological order. Each is independent of the other, though Rumpole - a man who admittedly likes the sound of his own voice - often refers to his past successes. He serves to hold up a satirical mirror to the legal system in England focusing on the attitudes of barristers, solicitors, and judges. His willingness to jump in to seek the truth often involves him getting caught (figuratively) with his wig askew, though Mortimer does apply some Deus Ex Machina on occasion to both get Rumpole into and out of sticky situations.

I listened to the audio version read by Frederick Davidson who did an excellent job of bringing voice the the character of Rumpole and the other members of Chambers.

Overall I liked this book. It provides a wonderful glimpse into the world of English law from a time before computers and was written before a heavy shift to CSI-like police thrillers. Rumpole lives and defends his clients (he never prosecutes) by his wits and the occasional lucky break. If you enjoy a good legal thriller then I recommend Rumpole.

[Bren · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Horace Rumpole tells us about his life; these memoirs begin in his middle age, narrating how he marries his wife Hilda, whom he nicknames "Her, Who Must Be Obeyed."

A man of the law, he loves what he does and feels proud to be a defender of criminal cases. He firmly believes in the idea that "no one should ever plead guilty," and as he ages, we see him reminisce about his most successful cases.

However, for "Her, Who Must Be Obeyed," his colleagues, and even his friends, Rumpole is a man of little ambition, even mediocre. He has his strengths as well as his weaknesses, but beware of those who underestimate Rumpole's abilities and his mindset as a defense attorney.

I really enjoyed it; amidst legal battles, cases of rape, murder, robbery, and more, we get to know a man who is, in his essence, Machiavellian but also very, very kind-hearted.

Highly recommended. (Translated from Spanish)

[eyejaybee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Just over thirty years ago (though sometimes now it feels more like one hundred) I began my career in the UK Civil Service and found myself working in Bloomsbury Tax Office. Despite the name, it was neither situated in Bloomsbury nor included that area in its ‘parish’ It did, instead, cover London’s Inns of Court, and the greater part of the self-employed taxpayers who fell within my domain were either barristers (no baristas back then) or partners in long-established solicitors’ firms working out of chambers that seemed to have changed little since Dickens described them in Great Expectations. Among my allocation of taxpayers was a certain John Mortimer QC, who retained a place in chambers though by then he had more or less completely given up his practice at the bar having established himself as one of the most successful writers of his generation, seeming capable of switching between novels, short stories, plays and television or film scripts more or less at will. It was back then that I first started reading the Rumpole stories that have proved a source of huge entertainment ever since.

This was the original collection of six short stories that introduced the querulous, self-opinionated yet also strangely endearing Rumpole to the world. Of course, it is difficult now to imagine Rumpole without seeing and hearing Leo McKern, who immortalised him in the long-running television series.

Mortimer was clearly a very accomplished barrister, having (unlike Rumpole) taken silk as a Queen’s Counsel, and also sitting occasionally as a Recorder (one of the various grades of judge within the English legal framework). Rumpole never prosecutes, always choosing to work for the defence. He also eschews legal jargon, and even the technicalities of the law itself, preferring to pepper his summation with quotations from Wordsworth, and relying on a pleasing blend of theatricality and pragmatism to win his cases.

The stories are certainly a joy to read, beautifully written and mixing carefully crafted humour and satire against the pomposity of the legal system (though Rumpole himself is, in his way, possibly the most pompous of them all. The cast of supporting characters is also finely drawn, ranging from Rumpole’s frosty, long-suffering wife, Hilda (generally referred to by him as ‘She Who Must be Obeyed’), the feeble commercial lawyer Claude Erskine-Browne and smug head of Chambers, Guthrie Featherstone QC MP. They all complement each other admirably, allowing Mortimer to poke fun at all aspects of the legal profession.

In this first volume the stories are a lot longer than most of their successors, perhaps reflecting the fact that Mortimer had not yet identified Rumpole’s potential for portrayal on television. They are, however, a glorious mix of humour and social comment, minutely observed and joyously recounted.

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Rating for this audiobook edition, 4★ for the book itself.

About the book:
These vignettes hover between crime and humor. Rumpole is much more concerned with getting a favorable verdict than he is in finding or knowing the truth, yet in his somewhat bumbling way he does manage to figure out the rights of things.

I had forgotten how much Rumpole and Erskine-Brown opposed each other. E-B really is a toad in the book. I was first exposed to Rumpole through the BBC/PBS TV series and they must have toned down Erskine-Brown.

Speaking of the TV show brings me to the narration. Frederick Davidson does an OK job but the voice of Rumpole in my head is still that of the actor from the TV series -- even while listening to someone else! So Davidson's narration ended up being a disappointment. However, if you don't have the TV show stuck in your brain, this would be a very good narration.

[delphimo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a collection of short stories dealing with Rumpole and his clients. Of course, Hilda or She Who Must Be Obeyed, is a constant presence. The biggest problem is the English vernacular opposed to American slang. I decided the watch several of the stories that were presented as a series on BBC. Many of the nuances that are missed in the book are depicted on the screen. The humor is not the slapstick humor of I Love Lucy, but more like the Kramdens of the Honeymooners. The British court system is different than the American court system and the flow of the story suffers from this difference. I like the underlying lesson of each story, such as a parent's responsibility for a child or the loyalty of one employee to another employee

[herschelian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Could anyone not like Rumpole, the witty, curmudgeonly barrister who toils at the coal face of the criminal judicial system; at the mercy of She Who Must Be Obeyed, and his clerk Henry. Mortimer's Rumpole books are as evocative of a time and place in England as P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves & Wooster novels - and just as funny.