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Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders
Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders
Sep 21, 2024 4:37 AM

Author:John Mortimer

Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders

Horace Rumpole - cigar-smoking, claret-drinking, Wordsworth-spouting defender of some unlikely clients - often speaks of the great murder trial which revealed his talents as an advocate and made his reputation down at the Bailey when he was still a young man. Now, for the first time, the sensational story of the Penge Bungalow Murders case is told in full: how, shortly after the war, Rumpole took on the seemingly impossible task of defending young Simon Jerold, accused of murdering his father and his father's friend with a German officer's gun. And how the inexperienced young brief was left alone to pursue the path of justice, in a case that was to echo through the Bailey for years to come.

Reviews

The whole of Close Your Eyes is an admirable and intimate wrestling with the damages incurred by trying to heal, as Adorno once called modernity, "a damaged life"...anyone wanting to read a wise, emotionally literate gauge of the burdens - and blarney - of alternative living should buy it immediately.

—— Pat Kane , Independent

In Close Your Eyes, Ewan Morrison carries off the compelling second-person voice brilliantly...the novel is beautifully set to a soundtrack of Rowan’s childhood.

—— Times Literary Supplement

An insightful tale of a brave new world revisited.

—— Nick Rennison , Sunday Times

Beautiful. Haunting. If Ewan Morrison was a woman, Close Your Eyes would be destined for the Orange Prize shortlist.

—— Helen Walsh

A brave, sensitive, painful novel, Close Your Eyes is an alternative history of the last forty years, an exploration of the damage idealistic, well-intentioned parents can do to their children, and a reminder that it is sometimes the people who are absent who really fill our lives.

—— James Robertson

Told with impressive skill... a riveting read.

—— Corinne Jones , Observer

Close Your Eyes is an astonishing book... It takes us right to the heart of the turbulent social changes that defined our last quarter century and it is a revealing, honest, searing novel about mothers and children, about what it means to be part of a family. The story, the writing, the moral intelligence: all of it is a knock out.

—— Christos Tsiolkas, author of 'The Slap'

Morrison is unsparing in the emotional ordeal he inflicts on both his protagonist and the reader, but his novel is always acutely and convincingly observed. It’s a telling and powerful study of the intersection between the political and personal (4 stars).

—— Ben Felsenburg , Metro

A novel that deals with post-natal depression that is both sensitive and unflinchingly honest, Morrison's story explores the bond and limits of motherhood

—— Stylist

Admirable and intimate.

—— Pat Kane , Independent

A fearsome read, it latches on and won’t let go.

—— Emma Hagestadt , Independent

This is more than a psychological novel – it’s a page-turning mystery too.

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

Intense and brilliantly sustained, this is a powerful, moving exploration of New Age life.

—— Jane Housham , Guardian

Gripping.

—— Big Issue in the North

Fantastic…skillfully done… A rivetingly, well-told tale (4 stars).

—— The Skinny

Morrison's most accomplished book yet...a complex, thought-provoking and deeply ambitious book, and one that Morrison, now an exceedingly versatile writer, pulls off triumphantly.

—— Malcolm Forbes , Glasgow Herald

Highlights include the page-turning pleasure of a well-turned plot, Morrison’s skilful crafting of character and dialogue and his confident handling of stylistic techniques.

—— Janet Christie , Scotland on Sunday

Morally complex, emotionally resonant – Close Your Eyes is a fine, fine piece of work.

—— Doug Johnstone , Big Issue

Mesmerising. Disturbing. Outstanding. Written with exquisite emotional perception, this is a tour de force from Morrison – the kind of book which comes along rarely but lingers in the mind long after the last page is turned.

—— Daily Record

Often the sense of impending disaster makes you sick with nervous tension. At other times, Morrison creates calm from the most unlikely circumstances. In a book that is somewhere between Esther Freud’s Hideous Kinky and Jez Butterworth’s play Jerusalem, Morrison creates something both uncomfortable and beautiful to read.

—— We Love This Book

This week we’re devouring Ewan Morrison’s new novel.

—— Herald Magazine

Strange and beautiful.

—— Laura Marney , Herald

I found this a really gripping, moving read, brilliantly told in the first and second person

—— Tam Dean Burn , Edinburgh Evening News

A compelling narrative.

—— Jewish Chronicle

Robert Harris is the master of the political thriller and his latest finds him in fine form.

—— Press Association

Both gripping thriller and Buchanesque adventure: its revelations impeccably paced and its original material used to poignant effect… An Officer and a Spy is carried throughout by the peerless characterisation of Picquart… But most of all it is the honest, implacable soldier’s dawning realisation that the institutions in which he has placed his faith are appallingly corrupt that has the most tenacious hold on the reader. It still has power to shock – and it leaves us in no doubt as to an old story’s continuing resonance.

—— Christobel Kent , Guardian

An event that obsessed France and the world is retold here, in forensic detail, with great clarity and humanity.

—— Country Life

I have just had a preview copy of Robert Harris’s new novel An Officer and a Spy, a thriller based on the Dreyfus case. Like John le Carré, Harris is interested in rogue intelligence, corrupted by politics. Unlike le Carré he does not lay it on too thick. The story of Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer convicted in France for spying for the Germans then exonerated, is one of history’s great political dramas. Harris backs the power of argument and reason. Politicians reportedly took Charles Moore’s Thatcher biography with them on holiday. Harris’s thriller would be perfect for the trip home.’

—— Sarah Sands, Editor , Evening Standard
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