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Remembering John Mortimer

Thursday, 12th March 2009

I'm in the middle of "Titmuss Regained" and I've also been reading Rumpole last thing at night, so this tribute by Christopher Hitchens arrived at just the right moment. :

On the bleak January day that John Mortimer died, at the age of 85, I was trying to think of an American “parallel” to his personality and position. Is there, in other words, anyone we can name who combines the qualities of a Dickensian or Shakespearean character with the grit and brio of a Clarence Darrow–style defence attorney (the above blend served slightly chilled with a definite hint of Kafka and perhaps a smidgen of Evelyn Waugh)? Well, no, there isn’t, and there never was such an American. But don’t feel bad about that: instead, feel worse because now there isn’t such an Englishman either.
[Thanks, S]

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