A Voyage Round John Mortimer

by Valerie Grove

Hardcover. First edition, first printing. Dust jacket is lightly marked. Jacket leading corners, edges and spine ends are slightly worn. Hardcover spine ends are a little bumped. A few light marks on page block. Binding is intact, contents are clean and clear. AM

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

560 pages, Hardcover

First published May 29, 2008

Reviews

[Nette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is this the most obscure book I've read this year? Sometimes I like reading fat biographies of people I vaguely know, and I enjoyed the Rumpole books and TV shows, so what the heck. This book could have been 50% shorter, though. Just way too much detail about daily life and not enough insight.

[Mervyn Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is supposed to be a biography of John Mortimer, but - nearly 200 pages in - I'm starting to wonder. So far it's been more about his parents and first wife, Penelope Ruth Mortimer. It's an authorised biography, so one can only surmise that Mortimer wasn't very forthcoming in revealing very much, and - so far at least - he feels almost like a peripheral figure, popping up, then disappearing again. I hope he appears more later on. I would've liked to have known more, for example, about his first trip to Hollywood. Instead Grove searches for the man using his - and more devastatingly - Penelope Ruth's books and plays. It's expertly done, but a little second-hand. Maybe the second half of the book will be different.

The good news is, the second half IS different and Mortimer comes more to the fore. The bad news is, the more to the fore he comes the less I like him. Rude to waiters, supports blood sports, not there for friends when they most need him, kicks cats, has multiple affairs, encourages women to have abortions - the charge sheet is pretty damning. And as I come to the end of this book it becomes clear that his public persona was really just an act. A shame, because I love Rumpole.

Mortimer was obviously very talented. And often on the right side of history. But he is not the genial old gaffer I imagined him to be. An all round good egg to the outside world, to those closest he must've seemed, well - what? - difficult? Closed off? Is cruel too strong a word?

In terms of Grove's writing, I get what other reviewers have said. She does try and cram too many details in. And it can veer from the pooterish to the profound in a couple of sentences. But I think she's done a decent job. And there are lots of details that need to be included. I mean, nine children, countless women, the many books, plays, TV and film scripts, all the dinners and lunches, his time at the Bar, the foreign excursions, etc., etc. One detail that is missing is Mortimer's death. Presumably Grove finished the book before he died. Probably held on so he could give it the once over. And maybe smooth out some of the rougher edges. Of the details of his life, not the writing.

But in many ways, I wish I hadn't read the book. Not because it's a bad book, but because of the truth behind the public figure. I started it with one image of John Mortimer in my mind - genial, avuncular, gregarious, gentle - and end it with a completely different image - manipulative, cruel, vain, irresponsible. And this, remember, is the authorised biography, not Graham Lord's hatchet job. Goodness knows what that's like. I , for one, don't intend to find out.

Oh, well, at least I've still got Rumpole.

[Abmay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing, most intriguing subject but was unable to feel a closer understanding. Structure was a somewhat random with over detail in some places and under detail in others. Really just a list of his works and the people he knew

[Kexx · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting as I grew up near his home, met him 3 or 4 times, and this is a ‘kind’ biography. Fascinating man but this feels a bit of a lengthy tomb. It would be interesting to see what would be written now he’s died.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent biography. I now have many more books to read, including the novels of Penelope Mortimer.

[Persephone · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was in the bargain bin of my local independent book store. I'm not a particular fan of John Mortimer's work, although I enjoyed Voyage Around My Father, but Mortimer's place in the literary and legal arc of the mid-twentieth century is a fascinating place to be, to say nothing of his unorthodox family life.

I actually didn't read this book from beginning to end. I read it from middle to middle, starting from when Wendy Craig (mainly known to me as the star of the British sit-com Butterflies had a child by John Mortimer in the early sixties after she appeared in one of his plays. I read to the end, then started from the beginning and read to the middle again.

This is another illustration of how the life of anyone well-known in British culture overlaps with the lives of everybody else well-known in British culture. (I suppose it's even more true in Canada where the population of the famous and celebrated is that much smaller.) Being a lawyer and writer of plays, books, screenplays and such, to say nothing of being related to writers and actors (his first wife Penelope Mortimer wrote The Pumpkin Eater among other works, and his daughter Emily [by second wife also named Penelope:] is a well-known actress), John Mortimer seems to have crossed paths with any British politician, judge, writer, or actor you can name.

For an authorized biography, this book certainly pulls no punches. It's hardly a rosy-eyed view of Mortimer's life and loves, probably largely due to the frankness of first wife Penelope's Mortimer's diaries and books which were heavily used as sources by the author, who I understand is a friend.

[^ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unlike Mr Mortimer, the author of this lengthy biography, Ms Grove completely failed to fully engage my attention. She would be well advised to learn the importance of selection of material; what is left out is very often of much greater importance to the success of a book than a diligent recording of (for example) every domestic squabble. I struggled through probably a fifth of the text, before deciding that as I was spending more time repeatedly flipping pages back to look at the photographs, something clearly wasn’t right.. My subconscious was telling me that I had other books with which I really wanted to spend my time. Hence DNF (Did Not Finish).

Instead, because my copy was in very good condition, and of relatively recent publication, my county public library service was very grateful for my donating this book to them (I spotted a paperback copy on the shelf of my local branch last time I was in there).

[Ali Miremadi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thorough narrative of John Mortimer's surprisingly interesting life. I had no idea he had been a peer of Harold Pinter as a playwright at the beginning of his literary career. Grove was clearly very fond of Penelope Mortimer - it seems unfair on the family to have all of his dirty linen officially laundered. But it doesn't diminish my affection for his fiction at all.