The First Rumpole Omnibus by John Mortimer

The First Rumpole Omnibus Reviews

• 
  Damaskcat

  I have been a fan of Horace Rumpole for many years and I re-read the books on a regular basis. Even when you know what happens the stories are still good reading and I often notice little things that I missed on previous readings. This omnibus contains 'Rumpole of the Baily', 'The Trials of Rumpole' and 'Rumpole's Return'. The first two consist of six short stories each and the third is a novel though it does contain more than one case.
  
  'Rumpole of the Bailey' was the first of the Rumpole books and contains a couple of the most iconic stories 'Rumpole and the Younger Generation' in which one of the younger members of the Timson family (that famous family of South London villains)is in the dock for a crime that maybe he didn't commit. In this story we learn that Rumpole is sixty eight and still a practicing barrister though he is writing his memoirs and looking back on his chequered career. From there on the chronology of the later stories can be a little hit and miss but the stories themselves are never less than entertaining.
  
  The other story in this first book which to my mind shows the best of Rumpole himself is 'Rumpole and the Alternative Society'. Here Rumpole relives some of his life as RAF ground staff during the war and falls slightly in love with his client and her lifestyle. This story has a poignant tinge to it which shows Rumpole in a reflective mood about life, love and poetry.
  
  The second volume in this omnibus edition is 'The Trials of Rumpole' and of the six stories it contains I think my favourite is 'Rumpole and the Showfolk' which has a really good twist at the end though it does rather leave Rumpole feeling he stepped into a lift just after the lift has gone. This case takes place in Grimble - that dour northern town which is the setting for some of Rumpole's cases which are not set in and around London.
  
  The third book in this volume 'Rumpole's Return' is a novel which shows Rumpole trying to accustom himself to retirement in Florida with his son Nick and daughter in law Erica after ten disastrous defeats at the hands of Judge Bullingham. He doesn't last very long and a letter from Phyllida Erskine-Brown in his chambers soon draws him back to London and the Old Bailey and a murder trial. But first he conducts an obscenity trial in Grimble - and fails dismally.
  
  The murder case itself requires Rumpole's son to do some sleuthing in Florida - which he carries out admirably well and provides the evidence Rumpole needs to help him win the case and frustrate a plan by Ken Cracknell - the newest recruit to Rumpole's chambers. After this success all plans for retirement are off the agenda.
  
  There is, to me, something intensely loveable in Horace Rumpole and his sometimes acrimonious relationship with 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' AKA Hilda Rumpole. He claims not to understand her when in fact they both understand each other very well apart from a few mutual misunderstandings. They are admirably suited in fact. Rumpole is always searching for justice especially when he believes his client innocent in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. He is a radical lawyer as Phyllida Erskine-Brown describes him to someone who claims to be but isn't really.
  
  This volume is excellent value and provides many hours of reading for the Rumpole fan and for those coming fresh to the character.
• 
  Zach Franz

  A marvelously written collection of largely inconsequential stories. Truly worthy of comparison to P.G. Wodehouse, which is no small feat.
  
  That said, as a Rumpole first-timer, I probably shouldn't have gone with an omnibus. I read its one longer story, but only 7 of the 12 shorter ones. It's not that they weren't good; they were just all basically the same. If you don't mind the fact that nothing really happens--over and over again--this is your ticket. Though, one more nitpick: I take a bit of exception to Rumpole's curmudgeonly nature. It seems to be meant, by the author Mortimer, as a charming characteristic; after a while it begins to feel, instead, like selfishness and arrogance.
  
  But again, this effect is slight--as evidenced by the four-star rating.
• 
  Jesse Broussard

  This was absolutely glorious. Just delightful.
  
  "As I always say, murder is nothing more than common assault, with unfortunate consequences."
  "He stands up with all the eager self-confidence of a rabbit with a retiring disposition caught in the headlights of an oncoming car."
  "so that the unfortunate Guthrie often arrived at Chambers looking less like a suave and successful Q.C... than a man who spends his nights watching over a dynamite factory in which all the employees are allowed to smoke."
  "It was rather as if a heretic, dragged before the Inquisition, had been told he'd just won a holiday in the Bahamas."
  
  Mortimer is obviously deeply influenced by Wodehouse, and his Rumpole--short, fat, careless with money, conjoined half in war, half wedlock with She Who Must Be Obeyed (in which relationship there actually is a profound affection built out of security that we catch glimpses of), always spouting poetry, always defending and saying, "there, but for the grace of God, goes Rumpole"--his Rumpole, seems actually to be a character with deep, Christian virtues (hear me out). He is not a superficial Christian--he is not even a Christian, I don't think--as Soapy Sam Ballard is a superficial Christian, and he revolts against the hypocrisy of such a life. His life, however, is one of fierce grace: he always defends, he never pleads guilty, and he fights tooth and nail to give his (often villainous) clients a second chance at life. He has a deep terror and loathing of ever condemning, which is deep-rooted enough to prevent his career from ever advancing, and his love of life (Pomeroy's "Chateau Fleet Street" Claret, small cigars, roaring fire and great poetry) are as deeply Puritanical (in the early, teach your dog to knock the hats off of bishops, delight in beer and making love to your wife manner of Puritans) as we could ever hope to emulate. This, combined with his wry cynicism, distaste of judges, Holmes-like intelligence and Wilde-like wit, and his deep knowledge of human nature that doesn't displace his compassion for people make him one of my all-time favorite literary characters. The fact that he quotes poetry that I don't know doesn't hurt.
• 
  John Martin

  I will finish this book, I promise.
  But it's on hold again.
  The good news is I've gone past halfway.
  The bad news is that's all for now, folks.
  I started reading this book again a few weeks ago after putting it on hold a year or so ago after reading a bit.
  I love Rumpole but I was spoiled by watching the TV series with Leo McKern.
  From what I've read, the TV series was very faithful to the books - hence my feeling of having been her before.
  Nevetheless, Rumpole's such a marvellous character - and I fully expected to revisit the book when i'm in that mood.
  Well, that time came. And went, when I found something more enticing.
  The good thing is the book is split into a number of short stories so you can easily read one or two, and put it on hold.
  
  
  
• 
  Alexander Inglis

  This is my first encounter with Rumpole in print (ok, e-ink), so I thought I'd start at the beginning. The first couple of stories in this volume wet my appetite but later tales really turn on the charm. Reading Rumpole is a bit like slipping into a comfy pair of jeans and slippers. It's also a great "in between" read to "cleanse" my little gray cells as I switch from one thriller or police procedural to another.
  
  John Mortimer's The First Rumpole Omnibus is actually a collection of three books published in the late 1970s: Rumpole of the Bailey, The Trials of Rumpole and Rumpole's Return -- and these, in turn, are based on a BBC Television series. There are at least two other Omnbius editions as well as other one-off novels.
  
  In the main, I enjoyed the 12 short stories more than the lengthier novel which brings Rumpole out of retirement, linking a chance encounter with a flower child in Florida with a murder trial that draws he back to England. Rumpole is an acquired taste with all things in the world seen through the his somewhat self-serving eye. Bu it is delightful to give in to Rumpole behaving like a little boy ... sixty or so years younger than his age.
  
  Small caveat: Penguin have allowed an appalling number of simply typos to creep into this edition. Truly: the text is a mess by any reasonable professional standard.
• 
  Laurajean

  Once you read one Rumpole story, you're hooked. Before I read any Rumpole at all, I saw an episode of Rumpole of the Bailey on PBS, starring Leo McKern as the man himself. (In later episodes, his real life daughter portrayed Liz Probert.) The entire series was very true to the stories, and I've reserved them all on Netflix.
  
  Great, great reading, especially if you're a fan of British mysteries. I read them all over and over again.
• 
  Benjamin

  If you haven't met Rumpole, you've missed a treat. Rumpole is a barrister for the defense in criminal cases. Unlike Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot, he doesn't win all his cases. But he does make them entertaining. The stories were turned into a well done series by the BBC.
• 
  Lee Prescott

  Acerbic, witty and very clever. I expected this to be dry and a bit staid but it couldn't be anything further from that. Recommended for those who like a splash of dark wit.
• 
  Alex Shrugged

  I'm a fan of the Rumpole of the Bailey TV series that was shown on public television as part of the murder mystery series. Although not all of Rumpole's cases are murders, he is especially interested in blood stains, and he won "the Penge Bungalow murder case alone and without a leader," as he says at the drop of the hat.
  
  This Omnibus consists of cases out of Horace Rumpole's life as he fights for his clients who are too poor to pay, and/or too disreputable for a "good" barrister to take on. "Never plead guilty!" Rumpole will shout as he defies his fellow barristers in chambers, or helps a woman become part of the British legal profession (at that point an all boys club). Miss Trent will become an ongoing character in the Rumpole series, and soon earn the nickname "Portia". (The nickname comes from the Shakespeare play, "The Merchant of Venice" when Portia gives a famous speech defending a man in court. It begins, "The quality of mercy is not strained...."
  
  Any problems with the stories?
  
  1. Adultery seems to be common, and if not accepted, at least purposefully unseen.
  
  2. Petty crimes such as those perpetrated by a crime family named the Timsons are consider wrong, but welcome. They help keep Rumpole's bar bill under control. After all, without crime, Rumpole would be out of a job!
  
  3. Religion is not treated seriously, or at least the characters who follow religion are not treating it seriously.
  
  4. Judges are portrayed as obstructions to the law, bumbling along, and violating the rights of the accused.
  
  5. There is a lot of drinking in a wine bar near the Old Bailey.
  
  6. Initially, a woman's role in a man's world is not treated with particular respect, but that is one of the points of controversy being addressed in the series. Don't freak out when you realize that Miss Trent is fighting to get a key to the restroom. She gets the key and a lot more.
  
  Rumpole comments on the issues at hand, often with cynical biting humor.
  
  I loved it. I will read this over and over.
  
• 
  Dick Varga

  watched the tv series first, enjoyed the dark, self-deprecating humour, the porterait of a man who marched to his own tune and was willing to pay the price in lost opportunities, disdain of his peers and family. Read "IF" R. Kipling and I see Rumpole.
• 
  Emma

  I read Rumpole for the first time as a 14-year-old off my parents' bookshelf. (I know I was 14 because at some point there's a line in one of the stories [not in this omnibus, as it happens - must have been a later story] about 15-year-old boys being "children by anyone's standards", and I was surprised by this, as a grown up person myself.)
  
  As a 29-year-old solicitor now (and in tax litigation, no less) it was an absolute delight to reread.
  
  ‘I was going to ask you a little about yourself. You work, don’t you, in the office of the Inspector of Taxes, Bayswater Division?’
  ‘Yes.’ Simpson seemed this time, perhaps understandably, reluctant to admit it.
  ‘That’s not a criminal offence,’ I reassured him. ‘Although it’ll hardly endear you to the jury.’
  
  P.S. Some of the stories haven't aged particularly well, but... I think that's part of the Rumpole charm, and I can't really hold it against John Mortimer, who was born in the 1920's and writing in the 1970's and 80's.
• 
  Boris Slocum

  I first started watching, "Rumpole," while in graduate school in the American Midwest in the early 1990s. There was not money for cable (the idea of paying for television was still new in those parts, in any rate), and of the five broadcast stations only one, the local PBS station, had good reception. Needless to say, I watched lots of British television.
  
  Years later, I ran across Rumpole in print and had a field day. Mortimer is just as dry and humorous in print as he is on the small screen, and there was the added joy of realizing that the British slang that I thought I'd mastered was not as clear as I thought. There were all manner of clever and witty things in print that completely went overhead on television.
  
  If you liked the television series, you'll love this and it's subsequent volumes. If you don't love Rumpole, or never heard of him, then you are in for a treat.
• 
  Ian

  This was another throwback read that had come up as a deal on Kindle. I remember loving these books and the associated TV series with the great Leo McKern.
  I am therefore sorry to say that I found them disappointing reading them again after more years than I care to mention. For the most part they read like adaptations of the TV series and maybe they are but my memory suggests the books came first.
  I actually came close to giving up and starting one of the other books I have waiting to be read but I persisted. Glad I did as the last story in the Omnibus (Rumpoles Return) was longer and better developed, more of a series than individual episodes.
  Time for something new to read.
• 
  Jeff Wilson

  I'm not a big fan of short stories. This is mostly a collection of short stories of Rumple. It is cleverly written by Mortimer and I appreciate his ability to be funny without resorting to slapstick. At the end of the day however, the only memorable character is that of Horace Rumpole. The other characters that populate the pages are forgettable. I'll read more Mortimer in the future because his portrayal of Rumpole is masterful, but I think I'll limit my exposure to just the novels.
• 
  Erik

  I should start off by saying that I've never seen the old TV series. I have a vague image of Leo McKern in the title role and that's about it. In spite of that, when this book fell into my lap, I felt compelled to read it. The light nature of the prose is probably the main reason. This is a nice breath of fresh air right when I needed it the most. There's a Wodehousian feel to the characters and the plots. Only slightly more serious and slightly more reality based.
  
  A fun summer read.
• 
  Roz Milner

  Curmudgeonly, a bit of a lush and more than a little cantankerous, Rumpole is a lawyer who thinks that a) everyone’s innocent until proven guilty and b) all cops are out to throw folks in jail. He’s maybe a smidge too incorrect for our times, but he’s always a joy (kinda like having a smoke outside a health food store). I enjoyed all the stories collected in this omnibus.
• 
  Ian

  It has taken me a year to read this excellent collection, but that does not mean it has been a dull slog. Quite the opposite! I always dipped into this in between reading my other books and it was a breath of fresh air every time. Funny, brilliantly written and an absolute joy.
• 
  Lois Mitchell

  What a lovely trip down memory lane! I enjoyed the drama series, Rumpole of the Bailey. These are the stories that the TV series was based on.
• 
  Nancy Rushton

  Rumpole is one of the best.
• 
  Gareth Williams

  Superb Read
  
  The stories about Horace Rumpole have survived through the Times and are still very enjoyable.
  I can still smell his small cigars.