The Anti-social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole

Dec 29, 2025 3:03 AM

Author:John Mortimer

The Anti-social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole - a delightful novel starring John Mortimer's iconic character

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

ASBOs may be the pride and joy of New Labour, but they don't cut much ice with Horace Rumpole - he takes the old-fashioned view that if anyone is going to be threatened with a restriction of their liberty then some form of legal proceeding ought to be gone through first. Not that Hilda agrees, of course, but she's too busy completing her memoirs to dissuade him from taking an interest when one of the Timson children is given an ASBO for playing football in the street. And pretty soon he realizes something fishy is going on. Why are the residents pursuing their vendetta against the Timson boy quite so strongly? Could they have a sinister reason for not wanting him on their street?

John Mortimer's hilarious Rumpole novel, which fans of Sherlock Holmes and P.G. Wodehouse will love, sees the magician of the Old Bailey at his unpredictable and brilliant best.

Sir John Mortimer was a barrister, playwright and novelist. His fictional trilogy about the inexorable rise of an ambitious Tory MP in the Thatcher years (Paradise Postponed, Titmuss Regained and The Sound of Trumpets) has recently been republished in Penguin Classics, together with his autobiography Clinging to the Wreckage and his play A Voyage round My Father. His most famous creation was the barrister Horace Rumpole, who featured in four novels and around eighty short stories. His books in Penguin include: The Anti-social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole; The Collected Stories of Rumpole; The First Rumpole Omnibus; Rumpole and the Angel of Death; Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders; Rumpole and the Primrose Path; Rumpole and the Reign of Terror; Rumpole and the Younger Generation; Rumpole at Christmas; Rumpole Rests His Case; The Second Rumpole Omnibus; Forever Rumpole; In Other Words; Quite Honestly and Summer's Lease.

Reviews

A novel that captures it all . . . a revealing study of one of the world's most secretive societies

—— Financial Times

Love and lust, men and money . . . a taboo-breaking, bestselling tale of sex and the city

—— Telegraph

Demonstrates the storytelling expertise of co-authors McCaffrey and Scarborough. Old and new characters, exotic alien races, and unique methods of problem-solving make this a good choice

—— Library Journal

Spirited...Fantasy fans of all ages should go for this one

—— Publishers Weekly

A felicitous combination of authors

—— Kirkus Reviews

Wodicka's narrative displays a skill that frequently belies his status as a first-time novelist

—— The Times

So who's the worst father in literature? Lear? Pap Finn? Michael Henchard? Ladies and gentlemen, there's a new contender in town. Tod Wodicka has created a monster of neglect and lack of awareness in bulbous-nosed Burt Hecker, a 63-year-old American medieval re-enactor who wouldn't know answerability from a hole in the ground.

—— Sunday Telegraph

Wodicka is assured and original, and his wry and subtle prose is a pleasure throughout. Burt is a pathetic, frustrating and sympathetic creation, heartbroken and heartbreaking as he struggles to pull himself together for his children.

—— Observer

Wodicka is original and writes an efficient, precise prose

—— Irish Times

A wonderfully memorable protagonist... and an arresting narrative that manages to combine both tragedy and hilarity

—— The Bookseller

Funny... accomplished

—— Kamran Nazeer , Prospect

Boy is it fun to read All Shall Be Well...Traveling through Eastern Europe with Burt Hecker, aka Eckbert Attquiet, medieval re-enactor and mead-addled father, is a little like heading south with Charles Portis' Ray Midge or being holed up in the campgrounds with Nabokov's Charles Kinbote - uproarious, wholly odd, wonderfully rendered

—— Joshua Ferris

An astonishing, beautiful book. It's comic and compassionate, assured in tone and richly poetic. Best of all, it's so original, unfolding in brilliantly unexpected and entertaining ways. Easily among the very best novels - never mind debuts - that I've read in years.

—— Peter Hobbs, author of The Short Day Dying and I Could Ride All Day in My Cold Blue Train

Quite simply, the master of comic writing at work

—— Jane Moore

To pick up a Wodehouse novel is to find oneself in the presence of genius - no writer has ever given me so much pure enjoyment

—— John Julius Norwich

Compulsory reading for anyone who has a pig, an aunt - or a sense of humour!

—— Lindsey Davis

The Wodehouse wit should be registered at Police HQ as a chemical weapon

—— Kathy Lette

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

—— Arabella Weir

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

—— Hugh Laurie

The greatest comic writer ever

—— Douglas Adams

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

—— Sebastian Faulks

Sublime comic genius

—— Ben Elton

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