Currently reading . . .

John Mortimer's Rumpole Rests His Case. I think this was originally intended to be the last ever Rumpole book as he has a heart attack in the last story. John Mortimer did say after Leo McKern died he would not write any more because he could not envisage another actor playing Horace Rumpole. He was of course persuaded to write Rumpole and the Primrose Path, Rumpole and the Reign of Terror, Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders and The Anti-Social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole. Then Penguin have just published a collection of the Rumpole stories written at various times for magazines and newspapers - which I'm pleased about as I haven't read any of them before so I'm saving it for Christmas.

I've gone back to Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots which is fascinating though difficult to read because it is over 700 pages and a very heavy paperback - not ideal for reading in bed.

I've just started reading Justin Pollard's Secret Britain: The Hidden Bits of our History - which features a section on the exploits of Arthur Ransome in Russia! I've also started a book called Heresy by S J Parris which features Giordano Bruno as a detective working for Francis Walsingham to unravel some grisly murders in Elizabethan Oxford while is searching for a copy of the works of Hermes Trismegistus. I've read about 50 pages and it looks good so far.

A pretty eclectic selection I think!

Currently reading

A biography of Arthur Ransome - The Last Englishman: the Double Life of Arthur Ransome by Roland Chambers. Even though I haven't read Swallows and Amazons I'm still finding it interesting. For some reason I always think of famous children's authors as perfect people - and yet they are far from perfect. As a child and young man Arthur Ransome comes over as unbearably self centred and demanding - writing to his mother to tell her to send him a particular book -'I want it'. No please or thank you. You never know whether it could have been a family joke but it certainly comes over as demanding. I get the impression the author doesn't particularly like him either.

Also re-reading Rumpole on Trial by John Mortimer - for the umpteenth time.

Then there's Kate Harrison's The Secret Shopper Unwrapped. It is a sequel to The Secret Shopper's Revenge and I'm not finding it as good. Sometimes sequels shouldn't be written and this is one of those cases I think.

I have just received a book by Susan Hill called Howard's End is on the Landing. She realised she had a great many unread books and books she wanted to re-read so she decided not to buy any books for a year and just read what she already owned. Hummm - maybe I ought to do the same thing?

Very mixed reading

I gave up on Richard T Kelly's Crusaders and put it on the charity shop pile. I couldn't even bring myself to write a review of it.

I am currently reading: Ariel Leve's The Cassandra Chronicles - a collection of short pieces from one of the Sunday papers. Michael Mansfield's autobiography - Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer. Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots: Why we Tell Stories. As a little light relief I'm still reading John Mortimer's The Third Rumpole Omnibus. A pretty varied selection!

Currently reading . . .

The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight by Gina Ochsner - I've been reading this for what seems like eternity and I keep thinking I'll stop and admit defeat. It is just too much attention to bodily functions, dirt and incomprehensible people who might or might not be dead.

Crusaders by Richard T Kelly - again I've been reading it for too long and keep thinking I'll give up. It's quite good and an interesting subject but about 150 pages too long and rather over written.

The Third Rumpole Omnibus by John Mortimer - a pick up and put down book as it's short stories and always a joy to read.

Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 by Lisa Appignanesi - I've just started this and it's very interesting. I had completely forgotten that Mary Lamb murdered her mother. Surprisingly enough she did not end up in prison but spent a short time in a private asylum and was then released into the care of brother Charles. She used to have a relapse every so often and would pack her own bag and tell her brother he needed to take her to the asylum.

Waiting in the wings - Anne Brooke's The Bones of Summer and Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. I've wanted a copy of this ever since it came out and I finally decided I'd have to buy it. At 700 pages it is going to take some reading but I shall give it a go.

I also need to read - and write a review of - The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton which seems to be a sort of DIY story in that you could almost read the chapters in any order. I've read about 20 pages and have totally lost the plot. I think I'm going to have to start again with it. Reviews seems to suggest it is very clever - which I suspect translates as the reviewer couldn't understand it and hopes someone will enlighten him/her as to the meaning of the whole thing.

Rumpole

I love John Mortimer's character that ageless barrister Horace Rumpole, married to She Who Must be Obeyed. I finished reading the first Rumpole Omnibus for the umpteenth time last night. It consists of the first three books. The first two are collections of short stories and the third - Rumpole's Return - is a novel. I think the short stories work slightly better but the novel in this case is equally good and it would have been impossible I think to break it into separate stories.

Rumpole never prosecutes and has a few judges he has regular battles with - The Mad Bull - Judge Bullingham, Judge Vosper who appears not to be human. Then there are his regular clients the Timsons - a family of small time crooks - and their resident solicitor - Mr Bernard. His colleagues change over time - Uncle Tom - T C Rowley - who haunts Chambers because he gets under his sister's feet at home - though he never gets any briefs and is retired; Claude Erskine-Brown who regards crime as distasteful and is married to the former Phyllida Trant - later to become a judge; Guthrie Featherstone QC, MP - head of chambers; Owen Glendour-Owen - though he returned to Wales on being appointed a Circuit Judge; Hoskins who has four hungry daughters to feed; Henry the Clerk and Diane the typist who are involved in amateur dramatics.

In these 3 volumes Rumpole spends some time trying to save Guthrie from his follies by prevent his snooty wife Marigold from divorcing him for having an affair with the temporary typist. His colleagues in chambers spend much time trying to persuade Rumpole himself to retire and he does so briefly in Rumpole's Return when he visits his son and daughter-in-law in Florida. But a murder beckons and he escapes back to his old haunt of the Old Bailey to defend Percival Simpson an Inland Revenue officer against a charge of stabbing at Notting Hill underground station.

I love the dialogue and the plots in these stories. Rumpole himself is a marvellous creation. All the stories have a moral to them and show the disadvantages of the profession. Even when you know what's going to happen - and I have read them all more than once - there are still nuances which I notice on re-reading.

Book comparison

Like many people who read a lot of books I always have more than one on the go at once. Currently I'm reading Kate Jacobs' Knit Two - American chick lit - A S Byatt's The Children's Book and John Mortimer's The First Rumpole Omnibus. A pretty mixed bag really.

I have completely lost patience with Knit Two. . I've read two others by Kate Jacobs - The Friday Night Knitting Club and Comfort Food. Knit Two is a sequel to Friday Night Knitting Club which ended in tragedy with the main character's death. I found it a bit too touchy feely for me - especially towards the end though Comfort Food was good. I had thought without the main character the sequel might be less so. But it isn't. It reads as though the author wrote it because she wanted to cash in on the popularity of its predecessor.

There is no real plot and everyone obsesses about the perceived imperfections of their apparently perfect lives. What's more they seem to be stagnating and wishing their friend was still with them - 5 years after her death. It didn't read quite right to me. I know it's meant to be celebrating friendship and I'm all for it but everyone seemed to be wallowing. There was one section about two thirds through the book which was a lot better where several characters go to Italy for a holiday combined with work.

Has my reading of this been tarnished by comparison with A S Byatt? I don't know, but I wonder whether it could have been though Rumpole has not suffered at all and I still love those stories. In The Children's Book she is at her complex, many layered and understated best. The book opens with a group of slightly Bohemian families. The adults seem to have strong friendships and relationships with their children who are all growing up in ideal circumstances. Gradually flaws in this ideal existence are revealed and all is not as it seems. The story starts in the early 1890s and finishes just after the end of World War I. It really deserves a post on its own so I will save a full review of it until tomorrow as I have almost finished it - all 600 pages of it!

Cold update and books

I thought I was a lot better on Tuesday but yesterday I felt dreadful when I got up and improved during the day. Today I'm at the snuffly yukky stage though I feel reasonably all right. My energy levels aren't what they normally are but that is hardly surprising.

Books currently being read - The First Rumpole Omnibus by John Mortimer - because I felt the need for some comfort reading. I'm also still reading A S Byatt's The Children's Book and I've started The Pursuit of Perfect by Tal Ben-Shahar which is about perfectionism. I'm not a perfectionist myself but have come across a lot of them in my life so it makes interesting reading.

John Mortimer

I was sad to hear of the death of John Mortimer - the creator of the famous barrister who never prosecutes - Horace Rumpole - he of the small cigars, Pomeroy's plonk and the Oxford book of English verse - Quiller Couch edition. I have been a fan of Rumpole for years and re-read the stories regularly, to the extent that I recently replaced my battered Penguin paperbacks with 3 omnibus volumes of the early stories. I have the rest in hardback as I've bought them when they were first published.

Of course the character was brought to life for television for that excellent actor Leo McKern. For many people he was the epitome of Rumpole and I must admit when I'm reading the stories it is the actors from the TV series I can picture. Guthrie Featherstone - head of chambers and MP - played by Peter Bowles; Patricia Hodge as Phyllida Trant - later Erskine Brown and all the others whose names I have now forgotten but whose faces live on as their characters.

The stories are memorable for their author's knowledge of human nature as well as the law and each is perfect in itself. They are excellent examples of the short story teller's art. John Mortimer may be dead but Rumpole will live on.

Sleeping better and audio books

The last couple of nights I've slept a lot better which at least makes me feel more with it.

I've been listening to 3 of BBC Radio's excellent dramatisations of Dorothy L Sayers books on CD - 'Have his Carcase', 'Gaudy Night' and 'Busman's Honeymoon' - very good they are too. I know all three books well and can identify what they missed out but they're a good substitute. I've also got 'Rumpole and the Primrose Path' to listen to. I've also found 'Ladies of Letters' - Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge exchanging barbed correspondence very funny. Apparently this is from 'Woman's Hour' but as I'm not usually at home during the day I hadn't heard it. Audio books are well worth trying - they can be found on eBay as well.

I haven't read any more of Maloney's Law Anne because I need both hands to hold it open! I'm awaiting delivery of a 'bookchair' - a rest for books which holds them open for you. The I'll be able to read more. For the same reasons I'm finding it difficult to read P D James's 'The Private Patient.'

Onwards and upwards

The Hit List

I finished reading Anne Brooke's 'The Hit List' last night. If you want something a bit different - though not in the same vein as 'Pink Champagne and Apple Juice' by the same author - then go for 'The Hit List'. Jamie is doing sterling work looking after his cantankerous elderly father and running his own business from home. His half brother, Mark, the apple of his father's eye, is working in Japan.
One of Jamie's friends from University returns to the village in Suffolk where he and his father live. But David appears to be gay, which he definitely never used to be - which worries Jamie - who soon adds him to his hit list of people he really needs to do away with to improve his quality of life. Then there is Robert - Mark's former boss - who turns up after six years away. The reason for his absence only becomes clear as the story progresses.
Naturally his father who is always comparing him unfavourably with Mark is top of the hit list. I was on tenterhooks wondering how and when Jamie was going to succeed in carrying out his list. The sexuality of many of the main characters is constantly in doubt which adds to the drama. It is not a comfortable book though there are many moments of comedy.

I am also reading - in complete contrast - Carole Matthews' 'The Chocolate Lovers' Diet'. This is chick lit though it does have a bite to it, apart from the chocolate, with a suicide because of huge debts, a drug problem and its effects on immediate family, and two gay men running a chocolate themed cafe . The book has a feel good factor to it with its emphasis on the power of female freindship.

What's next on the list to be read? John Cowper Powys 'A Glastonbury Romance'; Anne Brooke 'A Dangerous Man'; John Mortimer 'The Anti Social behaviour of Horace Rumpole', Erica James 'Tell it to the Skies' - the pile is growing ever taller. I know I buy books at a faster rate than I read them, so eventually I'm liable to disappear under a pile of unread books!! To stop that happening I'm off to decide what to read next.