Audio Book: Rumpole Rests His Case
Written by John Mortimer; Read by Tony Britton (Audio Partners)
Reviewed by Louise Johnson

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This is an entertaining collection of stories about Horace Rumpole, a "great defender of muddled and sinful humanity," a man of strong opinions and sense of self-preservation which keeps him from expressing them around his wife: "she who must be obeyed." The seven tales here, "Rumpole and the Old Familiar Faces," "Rumpole and the Remembrance of Things Past," "Rumpole and the Asylum Seekers," "Rumpole and the Camberwell Carrot," "Rumpole and the Actor Laddie," "Rumple and the Teenage Werewolf," and "Rumpole Rests His Case" are wonderfully human, engaging and funny, as Rumpole sets out to find the truth behind the cases against his clients. "Rumpole Rests His Case" is particularly enthralling: the great barrister, who by this time the listener has come to love, collapses at the end of a particularly stressful case and lies near death in a hospital. While those around him tell him that he must retire in order to survive, he takes on the case of a ward-mate who needs defending, fleshes out the most likely truth of the matter, and presents his case to the rest of the ward. While all attending agree that the man must be innocent, Rumpole relaxes into his bedsheets. What happens next? I don't know but I want to and will be watching for John Mortimer's next installment of Rumpole stories to find out!

© 2003 - Louise Johnson