John Mortimer

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Sir John Clifford Mortimer , CBE , QC (born April 21, 1923 in London - † January 16, 2009 in Turville Heath , near Henley-on-Thames ) was a British lawyer ( barrister ) and writer .

life and work

Mortimer attended the Elite School in Harrow and Brasenose College at Oxford University . During World War II he wrote screenplays for propaganda films for the Crown Film Unit .

In 1948 he began practicing as a lawyer. Around the same time his writing career began. He wrote numerous novels, short stories, plays, radio plays ( The Dock Brief , 1957), screenplays and his memoirs in 1982 and 2001.

Mortimer was married to the writer Penelope Fletcher (1918–1999) from 1949 to 1971 ; In 1972 he married Penelope Gollop. He had five children, including actress Emily Mortimer ; Both marriages have two children each, and another son has a relationship with actress Wendy Craig .

Rumpole

Mortimer's most famous creation is the figure of the eccentric lawyer Horace Rumpole, in 1975 for the first time in Rumpole of the Bailey : (German Rumpole of the Old Bailey occurred). Rumpole's adventures were mostly published around the same time as short stories and as episodes of a television series by Thames Television in which Australian actor Leo McKern played the title role. After McKern's death in 2002, several episodes starring Timothy West appeared .

Rumpole is of an advanced age - the first episode stated his age as 68 -, constantly smokes cigarillos, drinks cheap red wine, Wordsworth and other poets from the Oxford Book of English Verse cite . His knowledge of the law is a bit sketchy, but he is an unsurpassed expert on blood stains. His disrespectful behavior towards judges and other authorities, as well as his unwavering adherence to ideals such as the presumption of innocence, meant that - unlike its creator - he was never appointed Queen's Counsel .

In a typical Rumpole episode, on the one hand, a criminal case is described - often with a member of the Timson family, a widespread clan of petty criminals, as the accused - and, on the other hand, scenes from the everyday life of lawyers and judges at the Old Bailey , the London Criminal Court and third, it's about Rumpole's private life, especially his not very harmonious marriage to Hilda, whom Rumpole only calls She Who Must Be Obeyed , alluding to Rider Haggards She . There are often parallels between these three storylines.

Works (selection)

  • Rumpole of the Bailey (1978)
  • The Trials of Rumpole (1979)
  • Rumpole for the Defense (1982)
  • Rumpole's Return (1982)
  • Rumpole and the Golden Thread (1983)
  • Paradise Postponed (1985)
  • Rumpole's Last Case (1987)
  • Rumpole and the Age of Miracles (1988)
  • Summer's Lease (1988)
  • Rumpole and the Age for Retirement (1989)
  • Rumpole à la carte (1990)
  • Rumpole on Trial (1992)
  • Dunster (1992)
  • Rumpole and the Angel of Death (1995)
  • Rumpole Rests His Case (2001)
  • Rumpole and the Primrose Path (2002)
  • Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (2004)
  • Rumpole and the Reign of Terror (2006)
  • The Antisocial Behavior of Horace Rumpole (2007)

Filmography

Literary template

script

literature

  • John Mortimer: Clinging to the Wreckage . Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1982, ISBN 0-297-78010-7 (English, autobiography).
  • John Mortimer: Murderers and Other Friends: Another Part of Life . Viking, 1994, ISBN 0-670-84902-2 (English, autobiography).
  • Graham Lord: John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate. The Unauthorized Biography . Orion, 2006, ISBN 0-7528-7780-1 (English).
  • Valerie Grove: A Voyage Round John Mortimer . Viking, 2007, ISBN 0-670-91550-5 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ timesonline.co.uk : John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole, dies aged 85 (January 16, 2009, English)
personal data
SURNAME Mortimer, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mortimer, John Clifford
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer and lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH January 16, 2009
Place of death Turville Heath at Henley-on-Thames