Rumpole of the Bailey Books in Order

This generous selection gathers fourteen of Rumpole’s best cases, chosen from across three decades, and ends with the fragment of a new story found after Mortimer’s death, making it both a perfect introduction and a farewell to the Old Bailey hack.

Seven seasonal stories see Rumpole enduring family rituals, pantomimes and health farms while gratefully seizing any excuse to escape into a case, proving that crime and muddle never quite take a holiday at Christmas.

Rumpole finds himself tangling with modern 'anti‑social behaviour' rules, defending neighbours and small‑time offenders caught by sweeping orders and surveillance, and wondering whether a cantankerous old barrister might be branded a nuisance under the new regime.

In one of his most topical outings, Rumpole defends a Pakistani doctor held without charge under new anti‑terror laws, challenging secret evidence and official panic while Hilda threatens to publish her own candid memoirs of life with him.

At last telling the case he has dined out on for years, Rumpole looks back to his first major murder trial, defending a young man accused of shooting his father and a family friend, and shows how that victory shaped his career and marriage.

This collection opens with Rumpole marooned in a nursing home he suspects is up to no good, then returns him to court for cases about privacy, juries and slippery witnesses, blending cosy legal comedy with sharp digs at modern fashions in justice.

An older but scarcely subdued Rumpole confronts familiar villains, new judges and the odd Christmas ghost story, while stories like 'Rumpole and the Old Familiar Faces' show past clients and mistakes circling back into his life.

Published here on its own, the story that launched Rumpole sees him defending a young Timson accused of robbery, pitting his faith in juries and experience with wayward youth against the impatience of judges and more cautious colleagues.

Later in his career, Rumpole finds himself dealing with hospital scandals, missing children, prison conditions and the rights of suspects, all while trading barbs with Hilda and reflecting on mortality in this thoughtful collection of cases.

Chosen by Mortimer himself, this sampler gathers his favourite Rumpole stories from the early collections, offering a compact introduction to the Old Bailey hack, his beloved Timson clients and his endless skirmishes with Hilda and the judges.

Here Rumpole faces some of his trickiest cases yet, from family feuds to miscarriages of justice, while a disciplinary hearing threatens his own career. The stories balance lively courtroom battles with the sobering prospect that the great defender could be silenced.

Rumpole navigates haute cuisine, dubious doctors, surly trade unionists and a disastrous seaside holiday in this collection, proving that whether he is at a fashionable restaurant or on a cruise ship he remains happiest defending awkward clients in court.

In these cases Rumpole confronts media scandals, political reputations, ambitious young barristers and changing social attitudes, testing whether the old virtues of cross‑examination, scepticism and jury trial can survive the so‑called age of miracles.

A short Rumpole tale in which talk of compulsory retirement swirls around chambers, forcing him to weigh his love of the courtroom against pressure to step aside, even as he battles to save another client from being written off too soon.

Despite the ominous title, this volume offers another run of Rumpole stories, from winter breaks gone wrong to wine‑tasting contests and official secrets, as he fends off suggestions that it may be time to retire from the bar.

A rare excursion to the other side of the courtroom finds Rumpole briefly acting for the Crown in one of several festive and wintry cases, yet he still cannot resist poking holes in official stories and standing up for the underdog.

These stories send Rumpole from familiar London courtrooms into more exotic jurisdictions, testing the ‘golden thread’ of English justice as he defends clients entangled in family loyalties, political intrigue and the old‑boy networks he loves to puncture.

Here Rumpole is firmly on the side of the accused, from suspected killers to petty fraudsters, relying on cross‑examination, instinct and a sceptical eye for authority as he exposes shaky evidence and legal humbug in a series of brisk tales.

Six linked stories find Rumpole defending a shoplifting clergyman, actors at war backstage, wayward lovers and more, while grumbling about judges and wondering if his own forced retirement may be closer than he would like.

Drawing on early television scripts, this collection sees Rumpole tackle cases involving refugees, contested wills, expert witnesses and an unusually seasonal prosecution, all told in his sardonic voice as he needles the Crown and protects awkward clients.

Bored and sunburnt in Florida retirement, Rumpole seizes on a letter about a tricky murder case in England as his escape route. Back in London he must fight chambers politics and a hostile judge to prove he is not ready to hang up his wig.

This first collection introduces Horace Rumpole, Old Bailey barrister, defender of small‑time crooks and awkward innocents, as he battles judges, police and his own chambers in a run of witty courtroom stories set in 1970s London.