Elusive Mr Mortimer

Valerie Grove (Penguin/Viking £25)

The shadow of Penelope Mortimer looms very large over the first half of this authorised biography, with Grove focusing on the writer's wife to such an extent that she almost begins to lose sight of her subject. Grove would undoubtedly argue that Penelope had such an influence on John Mortimer's life that she deserves the prominent position she is given in the story of her husband.

As it turns out, the tensions between Mortimer and Penelope, also an acclaimed writer, provide the reader with one of the most riveting sections of this book. But it is not until the couple's divorce at the beginning of the 1970s that Grove can focus all her attention on her main subject.

Pinning down just what kind of man John Mortimer is proves, at times, to be an elusive quest. Many journalists before Grove have tried and Mr Mortimer, who has perfected the art of being a charming raconteur, more often than not managed to give them the slip.

In various autobiographies, including the acclaimed Clinging to the Wreckage, Mortimer, who lives in South Oxfordshire, massages the truth in order to create a better, or more palatable story. Grove retraces the writer's steps and tries to extract the true details of what really happened all those years ago.

On occasion she is successful, for example when she reveals for the first time that Mortimer got "sent down" while an undergraduate at Christ Church, for writing homo-erotic letters to another young man, Quentin Edwards, who also went on to practise law.

But there are other occasions when she does her best, but is unable to achieve a fully-rounded version of controversial events.

When Wendy Craig becomes pregnant with Mortimer's son Ross, it is understood that Penelope has an abortion at about the same time. Whether or not Penelope learns of Mortimer's infidelity is left in some doubt.

Once Penelope, the author of The Pumpkin Eater, is no longer centre stage, Grove is able to concentrate more fully on Mortimer's most interesting legal cases, including the Oz obscenity trial, and on his novels, plays and screenplays. And, of course, his happy marriage to his second wife Penny. Grove's biography is a comprehensive, rounded and true portrait of John Mortimer, although it perhaps fails to communicate how charming and funny a storyteller he can be. To realise that, you only need to read a few instalments of his greatest creation, Rumpole.