In Other Words

Collected and published for the first time, In Other Words is a book of verse, anecdotes and memories from Britain’s best-loved raconteur based on his long-running one-man charity show, Mortimer’s Miscellany. These are the stories with which John Mortimer, QC, has been entertaining the nation for years: of seedy criminals and the even seedier criminal justice system, of boyhood and his remarkable father, of passion and politics, and most of all English eccentrics from Lord Byron to the present day. Along the way, we meet a motley crew of failed murderers, remorseful drunkards, unrepentant adulterers and cantankerous judges. And interspersed among these humorous vignettes is a wonderful selection of English (and some American) poetry which beautifully complements the stories.

In Other Words is a splendid record of John Mortimer's show, for those many thousands who have seen it or heard of it. But more than that, it is the record of an extraordinary life lived in law and literature, and a story of England and Englishness – one which John Mortimer is uniquely qualified to tell.