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Rumpole at Christmas
Rumpole at Christmas
Nov 29, 2025 1:48 AM

Author:John Mortimer

Rumpole at Christmas

The hilarious festive stories of John Mortimer's greatest character. Sure to get you in the mood for Christmas!

'Without Rumpole, the world would be a poorer place' Daily Mail

Horace Rumpole is not overfond of the rituals of Christmas: turkey, tinsel and the like. But happily the festive season is not one respected by the criminal fraternity; meaning that celebrations in the Rumpole household are frequently disturbed in most-welcome ways.

There's the suspicious Father Christmas at Equity's Court's festive party. The actor who goes missing from the panto on the night of a major crime. As well as the body cluttering up the health farm (where the great barrister is gloomily restricted to a diet of yak's milk and steamed spinach to please She Who Must Be Obeyed).

These seven wonderful Rumpole stories show the great man at his sharpest, wittiest and best. Readers of Sherlock Holmes, P.D. James and P.G. Wodehouse will love this book!

'One of the great comic creations of modern times' Evening Standard

'There is a truth in Rumpole that is told with brilliance and grace' Daily Telegraph

'Rumpole remains and absolute delight' The Times

Reviews

A marriage made in heaven, or perhaps Gallifrey. As a teenager Michael Moorcock was my favourite author, and Doctor Who my favourite TV programme. Why no one has ever put the two of them together before I don't know

—— Charlie Higson

Delicious. The modern genre's most original voice has invited the Doctor into his multiverse for an adventure sparkling with wit and peril... Authentic Moorcock. Authentic Who. An essential read

—— Stephen Baxter

A combination of Moorcockian multiverse and Wodehousian Comedy filigreed into something magical and unexpected. It's Doctor Who written by the most important living British fantasist, and it's as good as I'd hoped, and much funnier

—— Neil Gaiman

Delightfully good-humored... an authentically Moorcockian take on both Doctor Who and that most whimsical of themes - the coming of ultimate chaos and the annihilation of the universe itself!

—— Alastair Reynolds

We are astoundingly lucky to have Michael Moorcock. In his range, his skill, invention and his passion he exemplifies the very best of more than one literary tradition

—— China Mieville

Here we have one of science fiction and fantasy's most respected and well-loved authors writing Doctor Who. What could possibly go wrong? The answer is absolutely nothing. This is a phenomenal book - 10/10

—— Total Sci Fi

Exhilarating, funny and deeply peculiar...It's been years since the Doctor Who range put out anything as smart and engaging as this. Fingers crossed it's the first of many such volumes

—— SFX

A bold, eccentric quasi space opera

—— Doctor Who Magazine

The great Michael Moorcock has written a Doctor Who book which is like Burt Bacharach knocking out an album for Lady Gaga

—— Word Magazine

A marvel- beautifully written, surprisingly moving, quietly rather brilliant

—— Harry Ritchie , Daily Mail

While Malouf's chief interest is in the human impulses that lie behind the epic deeds, he remains faithful to the beliefs and values of the ancient world

—— Edmund Gordon , Times Literary Supplement

immensely moving, modern novel

—— Elizabeth Speller , Independent

A dignified performance ... in writing this novel Malouf is honouring a great work and also making a great work of his own ... his graceful fiction deals in truth and is always beautiful

—— Eileen Battersby , Irish Times

Beautifully written and very moving, Ransom is a reimagining that respects Homer's original while expanding expertly on its themes.

—— Alastair Mabbott , Herald

Malouf captures the moving humanity of Priam's grief

—— Robert Collins , Sunday Times

Lyrical reworking of the final scenes of The Iliad

—— Metro

This superb novel goes by in a heartbeat, so smooth and engrossing is David Malouf's prose...It is a touching tale, full of pain, but rendered beautifully by Malouf's humanity

—— Lesley McDowell , Independent on Sunday

An audacious reworking of Homer's Iliad.

—— Holly Kyte , Sunday Telegraph

David Malouf...has given Homer's epic fresh life in this haunting mood piece...a graceful, eloquent text dominated by rage and sorrow

—— Eileen Battersby , Irish Times

This novel explores the timeless motifs of epic, in miniature

—— The Times

You know it ends in death, and so do Malouf's haunted protagonists, but this telling, at once unfussy and wonderfully poetic, breathes warm life into a great epic

—— James Smart , Guardian

Breathtaking skill...an extraordinary emotional charge.

—— Colm Toibin , Guardian, Christmas round up

A finely honed, writerly and wise revisiting of one of the most famous episodes in The Iliad, when Priam the King of Troy goes to bring home the body of his dead son Hector. No-one in prose has managed to better Malouf's imaginative recreation of the Homeric world.

—— Robert Crawford , Sunday Herald, Christmas round up

a potent new yarn... Beautifully written in simple language freighted with meaning, Ransom explores a king's impulse to act as a mourning father.

—— James Urquhart , Financial Times
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