Horace Rumpole, the comic, courageous, and corpulent “great defender of muddled and sinful humanity,” is joined by a winning cast of villains and victims in this collection of six tales in which wry humor and sparkling wit deftly send up the British legal system.
In Rumpole and the Angel of Death, our hero achieves new, resounding triumphs over the forces of prejudice and mean-mindedness. One adventure involves Rumpole in the world of hunters and the hunted, animal rights and human wrongs, while in another he finds that international justice is as fallible as the domestic variety. And for the first time, Hilda, “She Who Must Be Obeyed,” tells a story all her own.
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“As always, Mortimer writes with a Wodehousian élan but, unlike Wodehouse, he incorporates a spirited if indirect wrestling with the social and political issues of the day…Rumpole is by turns acutely sensitive and brazenly bullheaded, as Mortimer dances nimbly around thorny subjects with his trademark ease, applying all-knowing wit and painstaking characterization.”
— Publishers Weekly
“The irascible but always entertaining Rumpole is back, this time in a series of short stories that have him facing the usual assortment of human detritus at the Old Bailey…Mortimer’s stories may lack the gritty drama associated with the hard-boiled arm of the genre, but what he does provide is class, charm, and a wry commentary on a way of life.”
— Booklist“Six more briefs for the indomitable defender of the guiltiest-looking defendants the Old Bailey has ever seen…give Rumpole more than his share of hopeless cases…The bonus here, ‘Hilda’s Story,’ gives Mrs. Rumpole, She Who Must Be Obeyed, the chance to recount Rumpole’s defense of an alleged parricide from her own point of view.”
— Kirkus ReviewsBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
John Mortimer (1923–2009) was a playwright, novelist, and barrister. He wrote many radio, film, and television scripts, including the British television series Rumpole of the Bailey, and won the British Academy Writer of the Year Award in 1979. He retired from the bar in 1984 and was knighted in 1998.
Frederick Davidson (1932–2005), also known as David Case, was one of the most prolific readers in the audiobook industry, recording more than eight hundred audiobooks in his lifetime, including over two hundred for Blackstone Audio. Born in London, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and performed for many years in radio plays for the British Broadcasting Company before coming to America in 1976. He received AudioFile’s Golden Voice Award and numerous Earphones Awards and was nominated for a Grammy for his readings.
Wanda McCaddon (d. 2023) narrated well over six hundred titles for major audiobook publishers, sometimes with the pseudonym Nadia May or Donada Peters. She earned the prestigious Audio Award for best narration and numerous Earphones Awards. She was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine.