In yet another death in our declining stock of truly creative people, the British lawyer and author John Mortimer has died. He was best known for his series of comical mysteries featuring the curmudgeonly barrister Rumpole of the Bailey and his formidable wife “She Who Must Be Obeyed.” (English major that I am, I enjoy especially Horace Rumpole’s non-stop flowery literary allusions, such as his wife’s pet name. Can you identify where that comes from?) Those books are nearly perfect for pleasure reading, comprising as they do two immensely enjoyable genres: the mystery novel (and Mortimer plays by all the rules) and the comedy of character (that classical type going all the way back through Ben Jonson where what is most funny are the characters themselves).
Mr. Mortimer, who sounds Rumpole-like himself, drew on his own legal career. Here he is on why he would rather take on a case involving murder than divorce:
“Matrimonial clients hate each other so much and use their children to hurt each other in beastly ways,” he once said. “Murderers have usually killed the one person in the world that was bugging them and they’re usually quite peaceful and agreeable.”
Here is Mr. Mortimer, along with Leo McKern, who perfectly played his creation in the BBC rendition of Rumpole of the Bailey:
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