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Executive Times |
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2007 Book Reviews |
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Rumpole
and the Reign of Terror by John Mortimer |
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Rating: |
*** |
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(Recommended) |
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Click on
title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Ties Leave it to
John Mortimer to keep Horace Rumpole up to date in the defense of the legal
rights of individuals. In Rumpole
and the Reign of Terror, Rumpole faces the frustration of trying to
defend a client who is suspected of terrorism. Everything that Rumpole has
learned about the law is turned upside down by the provisions of the British
Anti-Terror Act. The Timsons are tied into the story, as fans would expect,
and Rumpole faces challenges that would be insurmountable to lesser men. Here’s
an excerpt, all of Chapter 4, pp. 14-17: Tiffany
Khan — once, somehow improbably, Tiffany Timson — sat
on the edge of my client’s chair in chambers as though prepared to rush off
at any moment in search of the husband she seemed to believe I would have no
difficulty in rescuing. As I have said, she had darker hair and eyes than the
rest of the Timsons and when she spoke it was in a soft and gentle voice
which I thought she might have caught, in part, from her Pakistani husband. Her story
was both simple and alarming. About twelve years ago she had got a job as a
secretary at Oakwood, a north London hospital. It was there she had met Dr
Khan, who was some fifteen years older than Tiffany, and they’d fallen in
love, married and had two children, a boy of ten and a girl of eight. Mahmood
Khan’s father had come to England in the 1970s and started a small corner
shop just off the Edgware Road. His success then led to his acquiring more
corner shops and he sent money back regularly to his family in Pakistan. He also
acquired a highly desirable residence, a fairly large house ‘on the better
side of Kilburn’. While he was living there, his wife died and his only son,
Mahmood (Tiffany’s husband), left Pakistan to join him in England. Mahmood had qualified as a
doctor in Pakistan but he was forced to leave the country of his birth
because, Tiffany said, ‘he had become involved in politics, which is a risky
thing to do in Pakistan’. Tiffany wasn’t at all clear what exact form her
husband’s politics took, but they clearly met with the outright disapproval
of the Pakistan government. He told her he’d been in danger of prison, and
this was when he managed to escape from his country, Tiffany said, ‘by a few
disguises and a long walk across the mountains’, and made his way to England,
where his father had organized an immigrant’s visa. In the course of time the
father’s businesses began to fail and he had to sell off the corner shops.
That was the bad news. The good news was that Mahmood had sufficient qualifications
to practise as a doctor in England and had got a post at Oakwood Hospital. It
was no doubt, as Tiffany said, because Mahmood’s father was so overcome with
the happiness of the occasion that he had died on the night of their wedding,
leaving his son the desirable house in Kilburn. Although he was permitted to
remain in England and work here as a doctor, Mahmood, like his father, never
became a British citizen. There
seemed to have been no blot on the contented life of the young Khan family
until that dreadful morning when the police called early at the Kilburn
house and Dr Mahmood met the fate he had managed to avoid in his native
country. He was under arrest. ‘And not
being a British subject, he’s liable to be deported.’ Bonny Bernard spoke in
pessimistic and depressing terms, a process known to him as ‘preparing the
client for the worst’. Tears welled in Tiffany’s eyes, which she wiped
quickly away with the back of her hand as she went on with her story. They
came for Mahmood Khan when Tiffany was getting their children ready for
school and he was about to leave for the hospital. They were three police
officers in plain clothes and they refused to explain why he was being
arrested or where he was being taken. He, it seemed, was controlled and told
her it must be some extraordinary mistake. It was only as they were going out
of the house that one of the officers thought to announce that Mahmood was
being arrested under the Terrorism Act. The last thing she heard him say was
that the idea was ridiculous. ‘Have you
any inkling why they took him?’ I asked her. ‘Because
of what he is.’ She had no doubt about it. ‘You mean — a terrorist?’ ‘No.
Pakistani. He’s a Paki. That’s why they’re against him. All my family are
against him. Never mind what sort of trouble they get into with the police,
I’ve done the worst crime. I’ve married a Paki.’ ‘This
government of ours,’ I had to tell her, ‘has done quite enough harm to our
age-old and much-prized legal system, but I don’t think it has quite got to
the stage of making the fact of having been born in Pakistan a criminal
offence. My solicitor, Mr Bernard, will correct me if I’m wrong.’ ‘Mr
Rumpole’s quite right,’ Bonny Bernard reassured Tiffany, who clearly stood in
great need of reassurance. ‘We must get to know which particular brand of
terrorism he’s accused of.’ My anxiety to comfort Tiffany had gone too far,
as Bonnie Bernard was quick to point out. We may never know. The prosecution
aren’t bound to tell us anything.’ ‘Our present Home
Secretary,’ I had to inform Tiffany, ‘in his wisdom, has relieved the
prosecution of the trouble of making any charges at all.’ ‘Fred
Sugden.’ Bernard named the culprit, the same bright spark who had abolished
the hearsay rule, to the great disadvantage of Percy Timson. Tiffany looked puzzled, as
though she hadn’t entirely understood what we had told her but she was sure
it wasn’t good news. Then she saw a ray of hope. ‘If you
want someone who’ll tell you Mahmood was no more a terrorist than I am, Mr
Rumpole,’ she said, ‘there’s Barry.’ ‘Barry
who?’ ‘Barry
Whiteside, Oakwood Hospital’s administrator. They’ve always got on so well.
He’s a real friend and I never heard Barry call anyone a Paki. Anyway, he’s
married to a Paid like I am, Benazir. She’s lovely.’ ‘Make a note, Bernard. We
could do with a character witness.’ ‘He’ll help Mahmood. I know
he’ll help him.’ ‘And I’ve
got a few friends in the Home Office.’ Bernard tried to sound modest about
it. ‘We should be able to discover where he is, at least.’ ‘You’ll
bring him back to me, Mr Rumpole?’ Tiffany was looking at me with her big
dark eyes full of a trust I didn’t feel I had in the least deserved. ‘You’ll
help me find Mahmood and get him out of trouble? All my family say you’re
wonderful in court.’ ‘Your family usually know
what they are accused of,’ I had to tell her. ‘All the same, I’ll do my
best.’ On the pages of Rumpole
and the Reign of Terror, he certainly does do his best, and long-time and
first-time readers will be pleased with the outcome. Steve Hopkins,
February 23, 2007 |
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·
2007 Hopkins and Company, LLC The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the March 2007
issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/Rumpole
and the Reign of Terror.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • 723 North Kenilworth Avenue • Oak Park,
IL 60302 E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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