By JAMES D. WATTS JR. Scene Writer on Jan 17, 2009, at 3:24 PM Updated on 1/17 at 3:24 PM
ARTS
This has not, by any standard, been a good week for far too many people.
We've been horrifically reminded how fragile ...
Celebrity Attractions announced that Disney Theatricals will donate a portion of this week's ticket sales to the Tulsa run ...
Tulsa native Tracy Letts won the Outstanding Actor in a Play at the 58th annual Drama Desk Awards, presented Sunday night ...
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Most of the tributes that have come upon the news of John Mortimer's death emphasize -- quite rightly -- the fact that he was the creator of Horace Rumpole, the poetry-quoting, plonk-swilling, self-described "Old Bailey hack" of a lawyer who only handled defense cases.
I am one of the millions who enjoyed the Rumpole tales, whether in the many volumes of stories that Mortimer wrote about the character, or in the adaptations that starred Leo McKern, an actor so identified with the role that, after McKern died, Mortimer suspended the TV series, believing that anyone else playing Horace Rumpole would have been only a pale imitator.
But Mortimer's other novels are equally commendable. His "Paradise Postponed" and its sequel "Titmuss Regained" are marvelous portraits of 20th century English society and politics in the days of Margaret Thatcher, and great fun to read. The same is true of "Summer's Lease," "Dunster," "Felix in the Underworld" -- they all brim with something that's become a little hard to find in today's literature: serious fun. Mortimer may write about serious subjects, but his prose always sparkled with a marvelously dry wit. His writing can be addictive -- so sad to think that now the supply has been once and forever cut off.
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