PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

John Mortimer was besides being a defense barrister the writer of the Rumpole of the Old Bailey and other books, of

a number of film scripts, plays, etc. In addition as

a journalist he conducted interviews.

In giving my father to the world (by writing a play about him) with my writing, I lost him to myself.

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The dangers of censorship are worse than the dangers of free speech

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I've met charming murderers and extremely nasty judges

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If I say I don't like God (because of the suffering of innocents) I'm giving God existence

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In all but the most rare cases, someone kills only once.

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Judicial killing is always more premeditated and perhaps more shameful than the crime itself.

Very funny talk in the E J Pratt (Canadian poet) lecture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCwybYELKp4

Interview with Mavis Nicholson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ctXmGPgGQ   1977

Interview with Nigel Havers  1987

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckNENc-7HjM

Mortimer interviewed at his home in 1975

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5ZoWWDowFw

BBC interview with Ludovic Kennedy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grQAkMi8QQM

Voyage Around My Father   audio rendition of his play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWnm8HHfL3M

Southbank interview with Melvyn Bragg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsEwiHI9jN8

BBC interview with Rosemary Harthill.. part of a series of writer

  interviews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA1WWclIp5U

Part 1 Abridged audio rendering of the autobiographical Clinging To the Wreckage

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbg8KN8sP4Y

Part 2  Clinging to the Wreckage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7UtVFwkP4s

Bishop Harries and Mortimer dialogue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWnm8HHfL3M

    Charade, Mortimer's first novel, Bodley Head, London (1947); Viking, New York (1986); ISBN 0-670-81186-6
    Rumming Park, Bodley Head, London (1948)
    Answer Yes Or No, Bodley Head, London (1950)
    Like Men Betrayed, Collins, London (1953); Viking, New York (1988); ISBN 0-670-81187-4
    The Narrowing Stream, Collins, London (1954); Viking, New York (1989); ISBN 0-670-81930-1
    Three Winters, Collins, London (1956)
    Heaven and Hell (including The Fear of Heaven and The Prince of Darkness) (1976)
    Will Shakespeare (1977)
    Rumpole of the Bailey (1978); ISBN 0-14-004670-4
    The Trials of Rumpole (1979)
    Rumpole's Return (1980)
    Regina v Rumpole (1981)
    Rumpole for the Defence (1982)
    Clinging to the Wreckage: A Part Of Life (autobiography) Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London (1982); ISBN 0-297-78010-7; Houghton Mifflin, New York (1982); ISBN 0-89919-133-9
    The First Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1983)
    Rumpole and the Golden Thread (1983)
    A Choice of Kings, in Alan Durband, ed., Playbill 3 (Nelson Thornes, 1966), ISBN 978-0091054212
    Edwin and Other Plays (1984)
    In Character (1984); ISBN 0-14-006389-7
    Paradise Postponed (1985); ISBN 0-670-80094-5
    Character Parts (1986); ISBN 0-14-008959-4
    Rumpole for the Prosecution (1986)
    Rumpole's Last Case (1987)
    The Second Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1987)
    Rumpole and the Age of Miracles (1988)
    Glasnost (BBC Radio Four, 1988)
    Summer's Lease (1988); ISBN 0-14-010573-5
    Rumpole and the Age for Retirement (1989) - stand-alone publication of short story first published in The Trials of Rumpole (1979)
    Rumpole a La Carte (1990)
    Titmuss Regained (1990)
    Great Law And Order Stories (1990)
    The Rapstone Chronicles (omnibus; 1991)
    Rumpole On Trial (1992)
    Dunster (1992); ISBN 0-670-84060-2
    Thou Shalt Not Kill: Father Brown, Father Dowling And Other Ecclesiastical Sleuths (1992) (with G K Chesterton and Ralph McInerny)
    The Oxford Book of Villains (1992)
    The Best of Rumpole: A Personal Choice (1993)
    Under the Hammer (1994)
    Murderers and Other Friends: Another Part of Life (autobiography), Viking, London (1994); Viking, NY (1995); ISBN 0-670-84902-2
    Rumpole and the Angel of Death (1995)
    Rumpole and the Younger Generation (1995) - stand-alone publication of short story first published in Rumpole of the Bailey (1978)
    Felix in the Underworld (1996)
    The Third Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1997)
    The Sound of Trumpets (1998)
    The Mammoth Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1998)
    The Summer of a Dormouse: A Year of Growing Old Disgracefully (autobiography), Viking Penguin, London (2000); ISBN 0-670-89106-1; Viking Press, New York (2001); ISBN 0-670-89986-0
    Rumpole Rests His Case (2002)
    Rumpole and the Primrose Path (2002)[29]
    The Brancusi Trial (2003)
    Where There's a Will (autobiography), Viking, London (2003) ISBN 0-670-91365-0; Viking, New York (2005); ISBN 0-670-03409-6
    Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (2004); ISBN 9780141017761
    Quite Honestly (2005); ISBN 0-670-03483-5
    The Scales of Justice (2005); ISBN 9780141022642
    Rumpole and the Reign of Terror (2006); ISBN 9780670916214
    The Antisocial Behaviour of Horace Rumpole (2007; in United States as Rumpole Misbehaves)
    Rumpole at Christmas (2009) ISBN 9780670917914

Select screenwriting credits

    The Innocents (additional dialogue, 1961)
    Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
    A Flea in Her Ear (1968)
    John and Mary (1969)
    Edwin (1984, TV film)
    Maschenka (1987) (Vladimir Nabokov novel adaptation directed by John Goldschmidt)
    Tea With Mussolini (1999)
    The Dock Brief
    Don Quixote (2000 film)
    Paradise Postponed
    Regina v Rumpole
    Rumpole a La Carte
    Rumpole and the Age of Miracles
    Rumpole and the Angel of Death
    Rumpole and the Golden Thread
    Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders
    Rumpole and the Primrose Path
    Rumpole of the Bailey
    Rumpole of the Bailey (book series)
    Rumpole of the Bailey (radio series)
    Rumpole of the Bailey (novel)
    Rumpole On Trial
    Rumpole Rests His Case
    Rumpole's Return
    Summer's Lease
    Summer's Lease (TV series)
    Tea with Mussolini
    Titmuss Regained
    The Trials of Rumpole
    Under the Hammer
    A Voyage Round My Father (play)