RUMPOLE AND THE AGE OF MIRACLES

Barrister Horace Rumpole and his colleagues at the Old Bailey continue to practice law and occasionally serve justice. This reviewer was perhaps the last to notice that a collection of short stories like this is a literary sitcom, which one revisits for the pleasure of watching old friends ring changes on familiar themes (without commercials). The fact that the stories are self-contained will be attractive to those who prefer to listen in short sessions but not leave a story in the middle. And several of the seven stories in this collection are conveniently confined (apparently by design) to a single cassette. Recorded Books credits this recording to one Patrick Tull. However, internal evidence strongly suggests that it is, in fact, Horace Rumpole himself whom we are hearing. Modesty seems an unlikely motive for the old barrister, so perhaps the pseudonym satisfies some nice point of law. J.N. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 00]