Rumpole and the Primrose Path Rumpole and the Primrose Path Rumpole and the Primrose Path is a light hearted legal comedy, one of six short stories in an anthology by writer John Mortimer. It is the 12th in a series based in part on his own past experiences as a barrister but also notable for their use of themes topical at the time each was published. It begins with the eponymous hero marooned in a nursing home where he feels some shady business is going on. It was later the first episode in a short series of 45 minute radio plays starring real life husband
Rumpole of the Bailey an age of around 70 years, and past events in his life have been retconned to fit each story's time frame. Thus, in the books published in 1996 and before, he proposed to Hilda in 1938, and in books published in 2003 and after, it appears that he neither became a barrister nor met Hilda until after World War II ended in 1945. "Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders", containing his first unled case and his engagement to Hilda, takes place in the early 1950s, entirely inconsistent with the early stories. Since 1988, when Phyllida Erskine-Brown became a QC and