A Rumpole Christmas: Stories »

John Mortimer (1923-2009) was a playwright, novelist, and barrister. He wrote many film scripts as well as stage, radio, and television plays, including A Voyage Round My Father, the Rumpole plays, and the adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. He is the author of thirteen collections of Rumpole stories, three acclaimed volumes of autobiography, and many novels. He was knighted in 1998.

A Rumpole Christmas is a collection of five holiday stories—never before published in book form—depicting the Old Bailey Hack at his lovable best. In “Rumpole and Father Christmas,” the English barrister encounters a familiar-looking Santa who he thinks is a thief. In “Rumpole’s Slimmed Down Christmas,” he goes to a new-age spa when “She who must be obeyed” insists that he lose a few pounds. In “Rumpole and the Christmas Break,” he protects Hilda as a shady judge flirts with her while on a holiday that turns out to be anything but relaxing. In “Rumpole of the Bailey’s Christmas Party,” Rumpole celebrates the holiday with Old Bailey colleagues and Hilda surprises him with an unexpected gift. And in “Rumpole and the Old Familiar Faces,” he uses a former client’s seedy past to aid a church in the name of Christmas spirit.

The Washington Post - Kristi Lanier

…a charming collection of previously published stories…Whether he's drinking yak's milk on a health farm and foiling a false accusation or tricking an ex-con into philanthropy, these cases simply melt in the warm glow that is Rumpole.