John Mortimer: The Secret Lives of Rumpole's Creator

American fans who may know little about Horace Rumpole's creator will learn from this dismal life of John Mortimer—who was enormously successful as both a barrister and a writer and is now a frail 83—that many people bear him grudges, not least Lord himself, whose wounded vanity at having been demoted from authorized to unauthorized biographer is evident in every repetitious swipe at his subject. Do we really need four people who knew Mortimer at Harrow to say that he was "dirty" or "unhygienic" as a schoolboy? Lord (James Herriot ) also charges his subject with being a hypocrite, a liar, an ingrate, a snob, a philanderer who fathered more than one illegitimate child and a "champagne socialist" whose liberal views on sex and pornography contributed to Britain's moral decline in the 1960s. Most aggrieved perhaps, with some reason, is the late Penelope Mortimer, the great man's troubled first wife and an eminent author in her own right, who portrayed her husband unflatteringly in such novels as The Pumpkin Eater as well as in memoirs. Lord is less partisan in his assessment of Mortimer's literary achievements, but one can only hope that the authorized biography will provide a more nuanced view that relates the life to the work. Photos. (Aug.)