Peter Kingston 

The Summer of a Dormouse: A Year of Growing Old Disgracefully

Peter Kingston finds that John Mortimer's text and delivery are still chipper in this cheering memoir
  
  


Neither title nor subheading is remotely justified. Dormouse be blowed - flitting to Italy to rescue a Zeffirelli screenplay, getting death threats from the animal-rights brigade, foiling a New York street conman, nursing the Royal Court Theatre through its refit, chiding the home secretary over lunch: much more than most 76-year-olds get around to. And unless you count listening to a judge in El Vino boasting about the size of his son's member, there's nothing disgraceful in it; it's all rather cheering. Despite a nagging leg ulcer and onsetting blindness, Mortimer's text and delivery are chipper. His high, mild tones - no doubt dangerously deceptive in cross-examination - have risen with age and there's the occasional blurry consonant, but Mortimer does his own lines proud.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*