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............................................................................................................................ Description In Britain every generation produces a national treasure, a lovable John Bull figure so English that he could not possibly be of any other nationality: first P.G. Wodehouse, then John Betjeman and now John Mortimer. Mortimer has delighted millions all over the world by writing seven television series about his gloriously larger-than-life fictional barrister, Horace Rumpole -Rumpole of the Bailey. He has also written novels, autobiographies, stage plays, film- scripts, short stories, television and radio plays, and newspaper articles -even an opera and a ballet. He practised as a barrister for thirty-six years, defending husbands, wives, pornographers and murderers and starring as the 'Devil's Advocate' in several legendary obscenity and blasphemy cases in the 1970s to become a liberal hero of the Permissive Society. Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Alec Guinness appeared in his plays and he served on numerous worthy committees, including those of the National and Royal Court Theatres, the Royal Society of Literature and the Howard League for Penal Reform. Yet despite Mortimer's huge success, fame, sexual conquests and knighthood there lurks beneath that genial 'champagne socialist' mask an unusually complex man who has been plagued by depression, doubt, insecurity and an irresistible urge to commit adultery. Graham Lord, whose discovery that Mortimer had a secret son by the actress Wendy Craig forced Sir John to admit it publicly in 2004, has interviewed scores of his family, friends, mistresses and enemies to write a devastating biography that reveals the startling reality behind the cuddly image - a book that Mortimer at first encouraged and then tried desperately to censor, in vain. ............................................................................................................................ Contents 1. The Temple and the Dragon (1923—1937) 2. Sex, Lies and Harrow (1937-1940) 3. Oxford and the Troublesome Organ (1940-1942) 4. Propaganda, Probate and Penelope (1942—1949) 5. From Poverty to Pacific Pallisades (1949-1959) 6. Wendy and The Pumpkin Eater (1959—1962) 7. 'The Casanova of the Sixties' (1963-1969) 8. Penny 2, Oz and Emily (1970—1972) 9. Rumpole and the Oral Sex (1972-1976) 10. Blasphemy, Bollocks and Brideshead (1976 - 1979) 11. Rumpole and the Suspicious Wife (1979-1984) 12. Rosie, Russia and the Royal Court (1984-1992) 13. A National Treasure (1992-2003) 14. The Bitter End (2003-2005) Acknowledgements Bibliography Index ............................................................................................................................ Author Details Graham Lord has written acclaimed biographies of David Niven, Arthur Lowe, Dick Francis, James Herriot and Jeffrey Bernard as well as eight novels, an autobiographical portrait of Mozambique and Zimbabwe, where he was born and brought up (Ghosts of King Soloman's Mines), and several short stories. He was for twenty-three years the Literary Editor and weekly books columnist of the Sunday Express, but now lives in the West Indies and the south of France. ............................................................................................................................
