John Mortimer 1923-2009
Friday, January 16, 2009 I was sorry to hear that Sir John Mortimer had died. Mind you, he was 85. A year or two before his own death, aged 81, in 2006, Forest chairman Lord Harris exchanged correspondence with Mortimer. Unknown to us, the creator of Rumpole of the Bailey (a wine-loving, cigar-smoking barrister) was already confined to a wheelchair and unable to attend a press conference at the House of Lords where we were launching a challenge to the Chief Medical Officer on the subject of passive smoking.
Mortimer was a champagne socialist and Ralph was an outspoken free marketeer. Nevertheless, Sir John still found time to wish us well and confirm what we already knew - that he was fierce opponent of the government's anti-smoking policies. Here, lest we forget, are some of his more memorable quotes:
"Nonsmoking? I absolutely hate that. I'm not particularly keen on smoking. I'm not particularly good at it. I used to smoke and then I gave it up, partly because I don't like dirty ashtrays. But I forced myself to take it up again when the Government said it would ban smoking in public places." (The Times, 16 February 2008)
"Do you know, I'm so irritated with the ban I've forced myself to smoke. I don't really want to, but now I have to. This ban is absolute rubbish. These people don't realise the limits of government. They should run the legal system and see that the drains work. But you're told how to cross the road. And what to eat. For heaven's sake - think of something more important." (Scotsman, 4 March 2007)
"I went to a pub recently and found I was the only person left indoors because everyone had gone out to stand in the freezing rain to smoke and catch pneumonia. I love smoky bars, and I think what this government has done is awful." (Observer, 6 July 2008)
But if you really want a taste of life with the Mortimers, read THIS enchanting interview with his second wife Penny in the London Evening Standard in 2003. Here's a taster:
From the outside of Penny and John Mortimer's house situated down a dirt-track road, everything looks still and quiet. The gate says Beware of the Dog but there are, seemingly, no dogs. Everything is still. The heat is shimmering off the green slated roof of the 1930s rambling cottage John Mortimer's parents had built for them all those years ago. When I knock on the door no one comes, so I just open it, walk in through the kitchen and look through the glass of the Mortimers' conservatory.
What I see before me is a mid-morning equivalent of the Mad Hatter's tea party. Penny Mortimer is sitting at a large wooden table smoking madly and chatting on the telephone. A man in smart, but born-to-serve, black trousers and a white shirt seems to be Hoovering the flower beds. Another young man in sunglasses is picking up cigarette ends from under Penny's feet, and a slim, gorgeous young woman is lying sunbathing on the lawn. She is smoking and reading a book.
John Mortimer, now 80 years old, is seated in his Sunseeker, which seems to be a cross between a golf cart and a motorised disability chair. There are four bouncy dogs rampaging over everything. "Oh, go away!" Penny yells at them in her throaty, distinctively smoky rasp.
There's another lady, who seems to be called Maria, ferrying coffee and champagne backwards and forwards from the house and another one, slim, older, wearing white with a halo of blonde curly hair, kneeling down on the ground preparing what seems to be a foot bath.
"Ah, hello!" says Penny when she sees me. "Come and have a coffee. Or some champagne. Or a cigarette. Or all three."
People
Reader Comments (7)
Human rights protector and an outstanding writer, fun erudite. My relative incoherent ramblings compared to the your and the outstanding writing above shows the world is a better place.
Sir John rest in peace, the world is a lessor place without you. May God be with you.
Unfortunately, Our new 21st century so called educated bunch of wimps will never understand what life is about.I pity them.
RIP John.
Yes, will today's society produce such characters as John Mortimer? No, character develops through being allowed to think and make decisions for yourself and those presuppose a liberal education system, freedom of expression, debate and self-determination. How much we've lost. It's tragic.
Simon -
Many thanks for sharing that 'Evening Standard' piece with us !
Now, THAT is MY kind of 'England' - slightly dotty, but humane, colourful, and tolerant.
I do sincerley hope that - echoing the words of Scott Fitzgerald - we have NOT 'seen the best of it'.
But when I look out of the window.......
See you later, John !!
There's a regular article, which Simon Hills writes in the Saturday Times Magazine, entitled "They don't make 'em like that any more"
A fitting epitath to Sir John Mortimer, I would say!
John Mortimer was a jem and I was sad to hear of his passing.
Thats the sort of england people all over the world love and want to identify with. Such a shame the shambollickers have ruined it and brought it to a close with political correctness and bans.
I can identify with his hatred of the smoking ban as I am now on 20 a day.
I live in hope that the recession will give people back their common sense and the pubs will return to the familiar smokey atmosphere it once was and that the prolatariat will give the finger to big brother.
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