It's an outrage, M'Lud...no wheezy, disrespectful brandy-despoiler should be permitted to induce so much mirth. The prosecution rests.

(NOTE: Amazon will not permit the removal of those egregious caps from its title.)

Mailed to fellow-BXer as trade.

Look what arrived in the mail today. Rumpole in all his curmudgeonly splendour. Thanks Dunzy. It's been too long since I tramped through the halls of justice with Rumpole.

Sitting down with a Rumpole story is like putting on your favourite jammies, grabbing a cup of hot cocoa and sitting in front of the telly with a smart English comedy. It's comfortable and entertaining at the same time. Horace Rumpole is one of a kind, more's the pity. In the title story he is told he is a character and I have to agree.

I think my favourite story is "Rumpole at Sea" even though he strays far from Equity Court on a second honeymoon cruise with She Who Must Be Obeyed. Needless to say, the cruise was Hilda's idea. Rumpole is not the sea-going or even the vacationing type. Having been forced on the cruise, however, he is dismayed to see Mr. Justice Graves also on the same cruise and he attempts to avoid him. But the ship is small and eventually they are thrown together. Also in their little group is a successful mystery writer, his executive assistant, a newly ordained clergyman and his wife. When the wife mysteriously disappears the mystery writer and the judge suspect the worst i.e. that the padre has done away with her at sea. Rumpole leaps to his defence of course and, in doing so, puts the learned justice in his debt.

The British system of justice is sufficiently different from the Canadian system that some of the customs are puzzling. The difference between solicitors and barristers is one such custom. Solicitors do not appear in court but they do represent accused persons and find barristers to do the court work. Solicitors also do the humdrum (but lucrative) paperwork for conveyancing and wills and so on. Here in Canada lawyers are both solicitors and barristers so the same person who draws up your will might defend you in court on a drunk driving charge. Hard to say which system is preferable. I'm pretty sure that a character like Rumpole's couldn't exist with having to examine the minutiae of a contract though so it's a good thing Britain has clung to their system.

I'll take this to the Winnipeg meet-up. If no-one claims it you can find it on the OBCZ shelf.

This book is currently sitting on the Winnipeg Official Bookcrossing Zone bookshelf in the loft of The Park Theatre & Movie Café, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg MB.

It is waiting there for a new reader to take home, read, and release back into the wild!

Winnipeg bookcrossers meet at my location on the second Wednesday of every month at 7pm to chat about books, swap great reads, and release on the OBCZ shelves. Please join us! We love to see new faces! You will enjoy the comfy atmosphere, the fabulous coffees and teas, and the yummy treats!

This book has left the OBCZ shelf. Let's hope it will let us know where it is and what it's been up to.