Author: Graham Lord Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 1466859229 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 475
Book Description
In Britain every generation produces a national treasure, a lovable figure so English that he could not possibly be of any other nationality, and Sir John Mortimer is just such a figure.Mortimer has delighted millions all over the world with seven television series about the gloriously larger-than-life fictional barrister Horace Rumpole --- Rumpole of the Bailey --- as well as novels, autobiographies, stage plays, film scripts, short stories, television and radio plays, newspaper articles, and even an opera and a ballet. Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, and Alec Guinness appeared in his plays, and among his greatest theatrical triumphs is his stage and television play A Voyage Round My Father. He won a British Book Awards trophy for Lifetime Achievement in 2005.Mortimer actually practiced as a barrister for thirty-six years, defending husbands, wives, pornographers, and murderers in court and starring as the real-life "Devil's Advocate" in several legendary obscenity and blasphemy cases in the 1970s, quickly becoming a liberal hero.Yet despite huge success, fame, 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.Biographer Graham Lord, whose discovery that Mortimer had a secret son by the British actress Wendy Craig forced Sir John to admit it publicly in 2004, has interviewed scores of Mortmer's family, friends, mistresses, and enemies to write a frank and vital biography that reveals the startling reality behind the beloved public figure. "Breathless prose and many juicyrevelations-an absorbing read."--Kirkus Reviews
Author: Valerie Grove Publisher: ISBN: Category : Authors, English Languages : en Pages : 542
Book Description
Novelist, playwright, and barrister Sir John Mortimer has led an extraordinarily rich and daring life, privately and professionally, much of it in the public eye. His own writings, including the wildly popular books in the Rumpole of the Bailey series, his three acclaimed volumes of autobiography, and his screenplay for Brideshead Revisited, have rewarded readers and viewers with insight and humor. Now, biographer Valerie Grove has been given full access to Mortimer, tracing his legal and literary career, from his first attempts at writing novels and plays, through his great triumphs in court, to the creation of the popular character Horace Rumpole. Mortimer's personal life--including his marriages and his many affairs--is as colorful as any fiction he's written. Correcting the many errors and half-truths found in a previous biography, Grove's book is essential reading for Mortimer's fans.--From publisher description.
Author: John Mortimer Publisher: Oberon Books ISBN: Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 280
Book Description
Includes: A Voyage Around My Father, one of Mortimer's greatest theatrical successes and a celebration of the Shakespeare-quoting, eccentric, brave, and impossible barrister the author had as a father. Also includes: The Collaborators, The Dock Brief, Lunch Hour, and What Shall We Tell Caroline?
Author: John Mortimer Publisher: Penguin UK ISBN: 0141049529 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 452
Book Description
Why does Simeon Simcox, the CND-marching Rector of Rapstone Fanner, leave his fortune not to his two sons but to an odious Tory Minister? Mortimer's novel unveils the follies and passions of an astonishing array of characters and English life.
Author: John Mortimer Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1849438080 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 112
Book Description
John Mortimer's autobiographical play is the affectionate portrait of a son's relationship with his father. Growing up in the shadow of the brilliant barrister, who adored his garden and hated visitors, and whose blindness was never mentioned, the son continually yearns for his father's love and respect. A Voyage Round My Father opened in June 2006 at the Donmar Theatre, London starring Derek Jacobi.
Author: John Mortimer Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 0140158278 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 289
Book Description
The villa near a small Tuscan town is everything the Pargeter family could want for three weeks. But when the idyll turns sour, Molly Pargeter begins to wonder about their mysterious absentee landlord.
Author: John Mortimer Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1849438870 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 392
Book Description
Includes the playsA Voyage Around My Father, The Collaborators, The Dock Brief, Lunch Hour, and What Shall We Tell Caroline? An unsuccessful barrister and even more unsuccessful murderer are the subject of Mortimer’s first play, The Dock Brief. This was followed by What Shall We Tell Caroline? and then Lunch Hour, another short play, about love and lies in the lunch-hour. The Collaborators covers the wear and tear of married life subsequently united by the threat of a third party. A Voyage Round My Father, one of Mortimer’s greatest theatrical successes, is a celebration of the Shakespeare-quoting, eccentric, brave and impossible barrister the author had as a father.
Author: Graham Lord Publisher: Orion Books ISBN: 9780752866550 Category : Authors, English Languages : en Pages : 326
Book Description
John Mortimer was a promising barrister who married a successful novelist (Penelope Mortimer) and then started writing himself. At first he wrote plays, most famously the autobiographical A VOYAGE ROUND MY FATHER, about his blind barrister father. Alec Guinness, Laurence Olivier and Michael Redgrave were among those who played the role.But it was Mortimer's creation of Rumpole of the Bailey, the irrascible barrister created on TV by Leo McKern, which catapulted him to wider fame and fortune, as his career as a novelist and screenwriter took off. He is credited with the hugely successful TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (Olivier, Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Toyah Wilcox) and then Summers Lease (John Gielgud), based on his own story.Meanwhile he had become increasingly well-known as a lawyer. His most famous case was his (initially unsuccessful) defence of two of the three editors of the underground magazine Oz on a charge of obscenity in 1971.
Author: John Mortimer Publisher: ISBN: 9780582030763 Category : Languages : en Pages : 92
Book Description
In John Mortimer's most famous and highly autobiographical play, a young man looks back on an unconventional childhood and youth overshadowed by his irascible and eccentric father. Sent away to boarding school to be 'prepared for life', he finds teachers deranged by shell shock after the First World War and boys who try to coat their ordinary home lives with romance. As the Second World War begins, the mild-mannered protagonist tries to become a writer, but is compelled to become a barrister like his father - a towering character depicted with affection and exasperation. Hugely popular since it was first performed, A Voyage Round My Father is a sublimely comic drama of warmth, nostalgia and wisdom.
Author: Graham Lord
Author: John Mortimer
Author: Valerie Grove
Author: John Mortimer
Author: John Mortimer
Author: John Mortimer
Author: John Mortimer
Author: John Mortimer
Author: Graham Lord
Author: John Mortimer