Sir John Mortimer was an English barrister, playwright and author. He wrote plays for the stage, radio, television and motion pictures. He also wrote novels and autobiographical works, together with two series of interviews with famous personalities from the late 20^th century.

 Sir John was educated at Harrow and at Brasenose College in Oxford, and began writing before he was called to the bar in 1948.He began his writing career as a novelist with Charade in 1947, and many of his short stories and novels drew on his legal experience. The television production of his play The Dock Brief established his reputation. Mortimer wrote many other plays, including The Wrong Side of the Park and The Judge. One of his finest works is A Voyage Round My Father, an autobiographical play about his relationship with his blind father, who was also a practising barrister.

Throughout his writing career Mortimer maintained a thriving law practice, took silk and became known as one of  Britain’s principal defenders in free-speech and civil rights cases. As a writer, he had popular success in the late 1970’s and ’80s with the  series Rumpole of the Bailey, giving English literature one of its most enduring characters. These short stories, featuring the crusty old barrister Horace Rumpole, were translated to television with the superb Australian actor Leo McKern in the title role.

 Mortimer’s novels include Paradise Postponed, Titmus Regained and Dunster. The Books emphasize the development of English culture and politics of the 1960’s and 1970’s and give a front row seat to changes in the English class system.

 Clinging to the Wreckage, Murderers and Other Friends, The Summer of a Dormouse and Where There’s a Will are frank autobiographical material. Mortimer was knighted in 1998.