In Memoriam
A Lawyer We Can Love — What Next?
Rumpole has tried his last case.
(Page 2 of 2)
There’s a particularly funny failure of communication in “”Rumpole and the Primrose Path,” when 3 Equity Court hires a director of marketing. This young woman is a fount of corporate jargon and neo-speak, making her almost impossible for Rumpole, whose favorite bedside reading is The Oxford Book of English Verse, to understand.
Most of Mortimer’s books are still in print, especially the Rumpole series. Mortimer has gone on, and this is sad. Rumpole will argue no new cases. But what Mortimer has left behind is a treasure. A treasure I commend to TAS readers.
R.I.P. John Mortimer, and thanks for the many enjoyable hours spent with Rumpole of the Bailey.
About the Author
Larry Thornberry is a writer in Tampa.
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ncatty| 1.19.09 @ 9:47AM
"I say, Rumpole, you're not a member here, are you? No, milord, why do you ask? You are sitting on the members' couch!"
Gary| 1.19.09 @ 12:59PM
"it comes as news to me that George Frobisher ever had a practice at the bar"
Appleby| 1.19.09 @ 3:16PM
Only yesterday I had occasion to describe someone in our law office to an American friend. "He is," I said, "a kind of Claude Erskine-Brown." She knew immediately what I meant.
God bless both Mr. Mortimer and Mr. McKern. They gave me many a chuckle over my 21 years of working for lawyers.
Dean M. Vander Linde| 1.19.09 @ 5:58PM
I am saddened to learn about John Mortimer's death. I have spent many wonderful hours reading his Rumpole stories and watching Leo McKern's superb portrayal of the greatest lawyer in the English-speaking world. I hope John and Leo are sitting in Pomeroy's Wine Bar enjoying a fine vintage of Chateau Thames Embankment!
Cicero| 1.19.09 @ 11:29PM
I first learned of Rumpole only recently, and it was as homework. I was traveling to London last summer on a bar-sponsored series of seminars and events. On the schedule was a dinner with John Mortimer. I was advised that if I wasn't familiar with his work, I should either read one of his books or watch some Rumpole episodes on DVD. With all the enthusiasm of a high school freshman sent home to map out sentence structures, I obtained a disc of Rumpole episodes from Netflix. Dutifully, I watched one.
I loved it. I watched the others. Since then I've seen every Rumpole episode available on DVD (over 30) and regret that there are so few available. I'm both a trial lawyer and a devout Anglophile and watching the give and take in the Old Bailey was captivating. The grandiloquence and stoutheartedness of Leo Kern's Rumpole gave me a role model that I still think of often when I'm in court.
By the time I saw John Mortimer at that dinner in London, I felt I knew his work well and was a huge fan. I was greatly saddened to hear of his passing, but he has left the world a fine legacy.
Alan Brooks| 1.20.09 @ 12:28PM
he's in heaven now with Leo Kern.
Philoktetes| 1.20.09 @ 1:22PM
Mortimer was a big-time commie. It showed in his writing. Nevertheless, I did enjoy Rumpole.
Alan Brooks| 1.20.09 @ 7:23PM
sorry. Leo McKern, not Kern.
great actor. Man For All Seasons. even Help!
Paul E. More| 1.20.09 @ 8:36PM
I must agree with the author of this article. Mr. Mortimer may have been leftist in his mind, but in his art he was often conservative even if that is not what he intended.
Leo McKern was also great in the role he was born to play and bring to life.
Mortimer’s adaptation of Brideshead Revisited is one of the greatest adaptations of a novel to screen ever if not the greatest. So he wasn’t limited only to his great creation of Rumpole, but what a great creation Rumpole is and remains to this day.
May the memory of Mortimer and Leo McKern and Rumpole live on forever.
Alan Brooks| 1.20.09 @ 9:24PM
McKern had a glass eye from WWII. thats why the Peter Falk gaze
iuiuiy| 11.18.09 @ 8:18PM
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