John Mortimer, the creator of Rumpole, is dead at the age of 85: a sad loss; I grew up on those books. A well-known barrister himself, Mortimer once defended the Sex Pistols at the height of their notoriety on obscenity charges for calling their album “Never Mind the Bollocks”. He summed up as follows: “One wonders why a word which has been dignified by writers from the Middle Ages in the translation of the Bible to Dylan Thomas and George Orwell, and which you may find in the dictionary, should be singled out as obscene because it is on a record sleeve by the Sex Pistols. It was because it was the Sex Pistols and not… Donald Duck that this prosecution was brought.” Needless to say, he won.
It seems that many Dopers are fans of Britcom and might be interested.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2009/01/16/mortimer-dies.html
And is now pleading his case before the ultimate bar, or so some believe. Rumpole is one of my favorite characters in literature, and his creator sounds like every bit as much of a character. Here’s the the life of a man of character, wit, and justice.
Here’s the obit from the Indy.
I only caught on with the Rumpole books fairly recently but enjoy the ones I’ve read enormously.
Of course, if for no other reason, we should be extremely grateful that he (and the wife, natch,) game us the quite lovely Emily… <simper> 
That’s sad. I just discovered the Rumpole books by accident in the library about a month ago. At least I have almost his entire body of work to look froward to.
There are not just the books to read, the TV series starring Leo McKern is well worth watching.
I picked up The Complete Rumpole DVD set last year. I know I have some of the books, but I intend to complete my collection as soon as I can verify which ones I’m missing.