In this spirited memoir, John Mortimer, an esteemed former barrister as well as novelist, playwright, and journalist, relates all the paradoxes and pleasures of his double life. He tells of his unusual childhood (his father, a blind barrister, insisted that his wife read the sordid details of his divorce briefs in public) to the dilemmas of his life as a barrister (one of his clients indignantly declared, "Your Mr Rumpole could've gotten me out of this, why the hell can't you!")