Has Rumpole hung up his wig for good? Can it be? Yes, the beloved barrister is now retired (though far from retiring) and gently ripening to a rosy hue in the Florida sunshine. But a colleague's casual request for advice on a difficult case sends him winging back across the Atlantic, and before he's through, our hero will come up against a fanatical religious cult and a mysterious letter written in blood.

Here are two wonderful stories about the irrepressibly audacious Old Bailey hack Horace Rumpole, including the immortal moment in Rumpole's Last Case when, pinning his hopes on a four-horse accumulator, Rumpole decides to retire from the hallowed halls of justice, but not before first speaking his mind to the "Mad Bull" - Judge Roger Bullingham.

While Rumpole defends a union activist accused of manslaughter, Hilda creates her own union and goes on strike as Rumpole's cook because of his unpredictable and frequent late hours. Rumpole is under pressure to win his case and negotiate a proper labor settlement with “She Who Must Be Obeyed”.     

Rumpole defends Charles Hearthstoke against charges of keeping bawdy houses, in the form of his chain of massage parlors. The case has become quite a scandal since many customers were prominent members of the community and, to Rumpole's astonishment, paid with credit cards. Guthrie Featherstone, who sought a massage for an injury, now thinks that may be identified as one of the patrons, and Rumpole cunningly arranges for him to preside at Hearthstoke's trial. 

Rumpole takes on a divorce case. He represents a Mrs. Thripp, who accuses her husband of unbearable conduct since he has not spoken to her for at least three years and communicates with her in their home only via written notes. But at home, Rumpole finds his wife, Hilda, in a horrid temper, since their son, Nick, has moved to Florida. When his client telephones him at home, Hilda eavesdrops on Rumpole’s conversation and thinks that Rumpole is now in the throes of an affair. Will Rumpole now have to find a divorce lawyer for himself? 

After a fight with his wife, Rumpole stays with Erskine-Browns and finds that Portia is prosecuting one of his clients.

Leo McKern is Horace Rumpole! Here he reads about the life and trials of the eccentric barrister, famous for his inestimable knowledge of blood stains, blood groups and forgery by typewriter. Witty and cynical as ever, Horace Rumpole will once again delight listeners with his irreverent behavior and legal triumphs. Will he and his longtime client Percy Timson both be forced to retire, one to sunny climes, the other to jail?     

Rumpole unenthusiastically accompanies Hilda and her cousin to a very fashionable restaurant. Rumpole hates the ostentatious ambiance and pretentious food with its scant portions. He requests steak and kidney pudding. Jean Pierre O'Higgins, the owner, is insulted that Rumpole would expect him to prepare such low-class dishes. Suddenly, pandemonium strikes when a live mouse jumps out from the serving dish at another table. Unfortunately, the diners are Erskine-Brown with an attractive colleague that he's romancing. 

Known as “The Bailey Hack” for his chain smoking, the irrepressible Rumpole is engaged to defend a church vicar who is accused of theft and whose only defense for now is “divine intervention”. Meeting up with old friend George Frobisher for after-work drinks, Rumpole can't help but notice that George's female companion looks suspiciously familiar. 

Our Horace Rumpole, the most traditional of traditionalists, defends a hippie-like schoolteacher on a drugs charge. Quite unexpectedly, he finds himself attracted to her and to her unusual lifestyle. 

Christmas Day in a chilly Norfolk village and a trip to the pantomime provide Horace Rumpole with the opportunity to solve a crime involving a duplicitous dame and to indulge in a little seasonal, charitable blackmail.

Following the best-selling Summer of a Dormouse, Sir John Mortimer - playwright, novelist, octogenarian, and erstwhile QC - offers up more lessons in living and growing old disgracefully. What would we like to leave to our descendants? Not a third-rate painting or our PEPS, according to Sir John, but a love of Shakespeare, a taste for alcohol, the ability to defeat boredom, the importance of never locking the lavatory door, and so on.

Lord Titmuss is still a figure with formidable influence in his constituency, but now the Conservatives face a difficult by-election after the strange death of the sitting Tory MP. Terry Flitton, the New Labour candidate, is confident of victory. But Titmuss seems to know a great deal about Terry, and quite a lot about the late and unmourned MP.... The Sound of Trumpets represents the triumphant completion of a political trilogy that began with Paradise Postponed and Titmuss Regained.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the young, feisty, devastatingly acute Horace Rumpole in this collection of cracking cases, also starring Timothy West as the older Rumpole.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Horace Rumpole in this fourth collection of dramatic court cases. 'Rumpole and the Bubble Reputation': Erskine-Brown is working on a sordid ABH and affray case which allegedly occurred in a Soho night club. When he and Rumpole visit the disreputable scene of the crime, they meet Maurice Machin, the editor of the Daily Beacon, whose paper is being sued for libel.