There now exists a body of Rumpole stories which is almost as generously proportioned as that of the man himself. It would be mildly interesting to glance at the original of the series, Rumpole of the Bailey, to see whether the irascible barrister has mellowed even slightly with the passage of time; in any case, this collection of six cases finds him as incorrigible as ever, tormenting judges, defending underdogs and downing claret in roughly equal measures. A nice touch is "Hilda's Story", in which Rumpole's long suffering wife, aka She Who Must Be Obeyed, is revealed as a sleuth in her own right and solves a mystery right under Rumpole's rubicund nose.