orace Rumpole: the very name of John Mortimer's popular creation conjures wrinkled clothing and the hearty consumption of alcohol. A wigged barrister with a passion for cheap wine ("Chateau Thames Embankment") and a dedication to the criminal defense, Rumpole has achieved the greatest popularity in his television incarnation, solving droll mysteries with barely a twitch of his stiff upper lip. But his purest embodiment is in the collections of tales Mortimer has been regularly producing for many years. The tenth and newest is "Rumpole and the Angel of Death."
Mortimer, a barrister himself for most of his life, has written television plays (like "Brideshead Revisited"), novels (like "Paradise Postponed") and screenplays. In the drama "A Voyage Round My Father" and again in "Clinging to the Wreckage," a sharply entertaining autobiography, he painted complex portraits of his stern barrister father. The fictional Rumpole, it's clear, draws on real-life traits of both father and son.
Now in his 70s, Mortimer could no doubt retire with honor from writing as he has from legal practice. But he remains a dedicated early-morning writer, applying pen to paper from 5 a.m. most days, even when he is on a speaking tour -- as when we talked to him recently in San Francisco. By midday, though, the diligence typically gives way to drinking, Mortimer volunteers with a smile.
Rumpole has been around since 1975. How has he changed over the years?
I don't think he's changed at all. He's like Sherlock Holmes -- he doesn't seem to age. He stays the same. But then I'm not a great believer that people change. People who write Hollywood scripts always think that characters have to learn things and change and develop. I think nobody learns anything. I think they make the same mistakes throughout their lives till they drop dead.
But the kinds of issues Rumpole confronts in his cases keep changing.
That really keeps it alive for me. The best way for me to comment about the world is by doing a Rumpole story -- like for instance, children being put in the care of people who are believed to be devil-worshippers, which happened in England and I think happened in America. That was in the last book. In this one there's one about euthanasia, and there's fox-hunting -- which is what the English are most interested in, apart from mad cows.