JOHN Mortimer gave us an insight into his life in his autobiography Clinging to the Wreckage. But he has allowed journalist Valerie Grove to examine his life as barrister and writer from an outsiders point of view. And the result is quite revealing. She l

JOHN Mortimer gave us an insight into his life in his autobiography Clinging to the Wreckage.

But he has allowed journalist Valerie Grove to examine his life as barrister and writer from an outsiders point of view. And the result is quite revealing.

She looks at his legal career - which includes the role he played in the Oz trial - to the emergence of his hero Rumpole of the Bailey.

And, obviously, there is a study of his early which was revealed in Mortimer's own play, A Voyage Round My Father.