This first title in the popular mystery series by playwright and novelist John Mortimer features Horace Rumpole, an English barrister who stands before the jury with the flourish of a Shakespearean actor and the ingenuity of a Sherlock Holmes. Rumpole—expert on bloodstains and fingerprint forgery—who has a wit so dry and razor sharp that most of his duller colleagues miss its cutting edge entirely; who prefers, nay depends upon a daily nip of Pommeroy’s ordinary claret; who recites Matthew Arnold at the most opportune of moments (such as when his wife Hilda, alias “She Who Must Be Obeyed,” requests a new set of slipcovers); and who disdains privilege at the very moment he is most enjoying it.

This selection includes six short stories: Rumpole and the Younger Generation; Rumpole and the Alternative Society: Rumpole and the Honourable Member; Rumpole and the Married Lady; Rumpole and the Learned Friends; and Rumpole and the Heavy Brigade.

“Rumpole lives as flagrantly on the page as on the box, a fruity, foxy masterpiece, defender of our wilting faith in mankind.”—New York Times