Horace Rumpole - dishevelled barrister at law, drinker of claret and smoker of cigars, inveterate quoter of Wordsworth and eternal defender of the underdog - is one of the greatest English comic char

Horace Rumpole, the irrepressible barrister fuelled by cigars, Tennyson, steak-and-kidney pud and the cooking claret from Pommeroy's wine bar, is back for further misadventures. Amid an unfortunate a

A fruity, foxy masterpiece, defender of our wilting faith in mankind' Sunday Times Horace Rumpole is in a strange state that could only be described as a kind of air-conditioned purgatory: he has