John Mortimer is a playwright, novelist, and former practicing barrister who has written many film scripts as well as stage, radio, and television plays, the Rumpole plays, for which he received the British Academy Writer of the Year Award, and the adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. He is the author of twelve collections of Rumpole stories and three acclaimed volumes of autobiography.

Beloved and bestselling Rumpole is back to solve a new and peculiar mystery

Anti-Social Behavior Orders, commonly known as ASBOs, are the New Labour government’s pride and joy. A child who plays or even loiters in an unfriendly street can, on the complaint of neighbors, have an ASBO slapped on him. If he offends again he’ll be found in breach of his ASBO and thrown in jail without a trial. All this, of course, raises the wrath of everyone’s favorite barrister Horace Rumpole when he is called upon to defend a Timson child who has earned an ASBO for playing soccer on a posh street.

As Rumpole tries to get to the bottom of it all, his fellow barristers in chambers decide to highlight the ridiculousness of ASBOs by citing Rumpole for bringing food and his beloved wine into his room, and for causing global warming by lighting small cigars. Another witty tale sure to please the legions of Rumpole fans who eagerly await each new installment.