John Clifford Mortimer, b. 1923, London. Mortimer was an only child; his father was a successful divorce attorney, leading Mortimer to quip that he was raised "entirely on the proceeds of adultery." The elder Mortimer was a major influence in his son's life. The young John adored his father, who was a handsome and awe-inspiring figure, although John's memoirs make it clear that he was also stern, bad-tempered, and occasionally frightening. Not only did John follow his father's career path, but Mortimer senior was a primary inspiration for the character of Horace Rumpole. Young John also inherited a love of theatre and acting and was exposed early to Shakespeare, whose plays he would perform at home for his parents.
After secondary school at Harrow, Mortimer entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1940, where he studied law and performed with the university dramatic society. After brief wartime service as a propaganda writer, he apprenticed to his father's law chambers and was admitted to the bar in 1948. At first, Mortimer set up as a divorce lawyer like his father, and early on he turned to writing as a sideline, partly as a way to make extra money for the support of his increasingly large family: in 1949, he married another novelist, Penelope Dimont, who had four children from a previous marriage, and they soon had two of their own. There are six or so early novels and a few plays from this period, during which he also wrote romances for ladies' magazines. A little later, Mortimer switched his practice to criminal law---he says that murderers and the like were nicer to work with than divorcing spouses---and by 1966 had become a Queen's Counsel (senior barrister, or trial lawyer). Some of the many accused criminals he defended have turned up almost unchanged in the Rumpole stories. Even as he became a very successful writer of television and radio plays, he continued working as a barrister until 1979, when his fame as the creator of Rumpole began to get in his way, and he continues to return to the courtroom occasionally for high-profile cases that fire his allegiance to the cause of tolerance and free speech. In the 1980s he also returned to mainstream serious fiction with his trilogy of "condition-of-England" novels about Lesley Titmuss, and he now has three volumes of memoirs in print as well. He was knighted in 1998, and despite various health complaints (including failing eyesight) he adheres to a strict daily writing schedule, with three new plays opening since 2001. He continues to live and work in his childhood house, on Turville Heath, Buckinghamshire.
Mortimer, by his own admission, has always been a "ladies' man", and his first marriage ended in 1972 amid accusations of infidelity on both sides. Two decades later, Penelope Mortimer published a volume of memoirs in which she painted a scathing and rather vicious portrait of their home life; John's own memoirs have concentrated on the good parts of their life together. Meanwhile, he was married again, soon after his divorce, to Penelope Gollop; with "Penny 2", as he refers to her, he has had two more children.
As a lawyer, Mortimer has been a lifelong champion of free speech, and has argued for the defense in some famous obscenity trials in Britain, such as those of Penguin Books (for Lady Chatterley's Lover) and the Sex Pistols. He is also a committed Socialist, and his liberal principles are frequently given voice by Rumpole; in fact, he says that Rumpole allows him to speak out "on the side of the underdog and the oppressed, and against pomposity and the abuse of power" in a more attractive and effective way than merely mounting a soapbox himself.
The Rumpole saga began in 1975, with a single BBC television play called Rumpole of the Bailey, and in 1978 the first Thames Television series was aired under the same title. Typically, Mortimer had written both the short stories and the TV scripts at the same time (he does the same thing with stage and radio versions of his plays), and the first volume of short stories also appeared in 1978. The series became hugely popular almost overnight, largely because of the masterfully conceived character of Horace Rumpole himself---irascible, anti-authority, fiercely independent, and politically incorrect---and the Dickensian cast of secondary characters. While the crew in Rumpole's legal chambers varies somewhat over time, the regulars, such as "Mizz Liz" Probert, the office feminist, Soapy Sam Ballard, the despicable head of chambers, and the dreaded Judge Bullington, have become essential to the stories as well. Rumpole's many eccentric habits, such as tippling awful claret in Pommeroy's Fleet Street Wine Bar, remiscing endlessly about the Penge Bungalow murders (his one great, though distant, success), and waxing eloquent on the subject of bloodstains, are equally integral to his character. Of course, one cannot neglect Rumpole's wife Hilda, better known as "She Who Must Be Obeyed", who rules their depressing flat in Froxbury Mansions with an iron glove, though she can be unexpectedly sweet when Rumpole is feeling the chill of defeat. Almost every story deals not only with some sort of mystery, but also with an issue for the reader to ponder---say, the right to silence of an accused person---which allows Mortimer, through Rumpole, to voice his views. As Rumpole (and Mortimer) have aged, the world has changed around them, and the supporting characters in the most recent stories have a very different makeup than those of the first series. Many of the later volumes have ended with cliffhangers that recall Sherlock Holmes's supposed death---will Rumpole return to the Bailey, or has he finally retired/been expelled from the bench/fallen ill/died? Speculation about the end of the series increased after the death (in 2002) of actor Leo McKern, who has played the television Rumpole since the beginning, but Mortimer says he has no desire to get rid of Rumpole, and plans to keep writing as long as possible.