Rumpole for the Defence

We again meet with the inimitable Horace Rumpole in this collection of seven short stories. We have our favourite old curmudgeon dealing with all kinds of things from blackmail to corrupt coppers to murder. I can't stress enough how enjoyable these Rumpole stories are. They are extremely funny, and Rumpole's dry wit emerges over and over again. And the other characters in each story are just as memorable. Even the villains are wonderfully unique. John Mortimer is a very talented writer, and I invite you to enter his wonderful world with Horace Rumpole "rising to his hind legs" for each of his orations in court "up at the Old Bailey".

I couldn't put this book down. Rumpole's deprecating wit and touching cluelessness make him impossible to resist or to forget. This book actually made me scream with laughter, especially Rumpole's wry descriptions of one of his old school cronies who looks like a shrimp.

Once I tuned into the voice and adjusted the knobs on the tape player, this proved to be an excellent choice for in-the-car reading. The stories are reasonably short (one cassette each, as a rule) and quite entertaining. There's not much of the left-wing propaganda that comes out in the television series. This is just Rumpole using his ingenuity and accumulated experience to deal with an assortment of cases, from the woman accused of pushing her husband off their yacht to the policeman accused of taking bribes. There's even a case that Rumpole regrets winning when he realizes his client is guilty after all!Good stuff, and I hope to listen to numerous additional tapes like this one.