Collected Stories of Rumpole by John Mortimer – review

Rumpole was conceived for the screen, but John Mortimer's enduring comic creation is a joy on the page, too

• Natasha Tripney

• The Observer, Sunday 14 July 2013

John Mortimer: 'skewering the pomposity of the courtroom while celebrating British justice'. Photograph: Sophia Evans

These collected stories provide a wonderful introduction to John Mortimer's enduring comic creation. Originally conceived for the screen, Rumpole is also a joy on the page. These 20 stories – including the first, "Rumpole and the Younger Generation" – have a comfort-blanket quality, full of repeated trips to Pommeroy's wine bar, numerous murky glasses of Chateau Thames Embankment, frequent reminiscences of his triumph in the case of the Penge bungalow murders, and the looming presence of his wife, Hilda, the no-nonsense She Who Must Be Obeyed.

They also serve to highlight the wit and intelligence of Mortimer's writing; though they follow a formula, they are never formulaic and there's a real delicacy to the way they gently skewer the pomposity of the courtroom while also celebrating the British justice system.

In his late 60s, portly and permanently a trifle hungover, the rumpled Rumpole has much in common with Columbo; with his battered hat and small cigar, he's often underestimated – as in "Rumpole and the Heavy Brigade" – but, despite appearances to the contrary, the self-proclaimed "Old Bailey hack" is a skilled defender of his clients (whether they want him to or not), is dogged in his pursuit of the truth, and has a code to which he sticks. He seems at his happiest when defending the various members of the Timson family, a sprawling south London crime clan, who spend rather a lot of their time in the cells on one charge or another. This collection is full of such moments.