Editing John Mortimer (section)

==Early life==
Mortimer was born in [[Hampstead]], London, the only child of Kathleen May ([[married and maiden names|née]] Smith) and (Herbert) Clifford Mortimer (1884–1961), a divorce and probate [[barrister]]<ref>{{Cite ODNB |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-100790 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/100790 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |year=2004 |isbn=9780198614111}}</ref><ref>The Law Times, vol. 232, 1961, p. 210, 'Obituary- Mr Herbert Clifford Mortimer'</ref><ref>[http://www.filmreference.com/film/69/John-Mortimer.html John Mortimer Biography (1923-2009)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303215739/http://www.filmreference.com/film/69/John-Mortimer.html |date=3 March 2016.}}</ref> who became blind in 1936 when he hit his head on the door frame of a London taxi<ref>page 14, Graham Lord, John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate (2005)</ref> but still pursued his career. Clifford's loss of sight was not acknowledged openly by the family.<ref name="IHT">Helen T. Verongos [http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/16/europe/obits.4-409555.php "John Mortimer, barrister and creator of Rumpole, is dead"], {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303211310/http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/16/europe/obits.4-409555.php |date=3 March 2009}} ''International Herald Tribune'', 16 January 2009. This obituary was also carried by ''The New York Times''; a more complete version than the version on the ''IHT'' website is online [https://web.archive.org/web/20170828232532/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/books/17mortimer.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=obituaries here].</ref>

John Mortimer was educated at the [[Dragon School]], [[Oxford]], and [[Harrow School]], where he joined the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|Communist Party]],<ref name="Telegraph">[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/4269779/Sir-John-Mortimer-Writer-by-choice-lawyer-at-his-fathers-behest.html Obituary], {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206103706/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/4269779/Sir-John-Mortimer-Writer-by-choice-lawyer-at-his-fathers-behest.html |date=6 February 2016}} ''Daily Telegraph'', 16 January 2009</ref> forming a one-member cell.<ref name="Times1">[https://web.archive.org/web/20100524181516/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article5532245.ece "Sir John Mortimer: creator of Rumpole of the Bailey"],  ''The Times'', 17 January 2009.</ref> He first intended to be an actor (his lead role in the Dragon's 1937 production of ''[[Richard II (play)|Richard II]]'' gained glowing reviews in ''The Draconian'')<ref name="Times1"/> and then a writer, but his father persuaded him against it, advising: "My dear boy, have some consideration for your unfortunate wife... [the law] gets you out of the house."<ref name="Telegraph"/>

At 17, Mortimer went to [[Brasenose College, Oxford]], where he read law, though he was actually based at [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]] because the Brasenose buildings had been requisitioned for the war effort.<ref name="Indie">David Hughes [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sir-john-mortimer-lawyer-and-writer-who-created-rumpole-of-the-bailey-and-elegised-a-bygone-england-1418276.html "Sir John Mortimer: Lawyer and writer who created Rumpole of the Bailey and elegised a bygone England"], {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304083109/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sir-john-mortimer-lawyer-and-writer-who-created-rumpole-of-the-bailey-and-elegised-a-bygone-england-1418276.html |date=4 March 2016}} ''The Independent'', 17 January 2009.</ref> In July 1942, at the end of his second year, he was sent down from Oxford by [[John Lowe (Dean of Christ Church)|John Lowe]], Dean of Christ Church, after romantic letters to a [[Bradfield College]] sixth-former, [[Quentin Edwards]], later a [[Queen's Counsel|QC]], were discovered by the young man's housemaster.<ref name="Grove">Valerie Grove [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article5533223.ece "Rumpole creator John Mortimer dies at 85"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091005183429/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article5533223.ece |date=5 October 2009 }}, ''The Times'', 16 January 2009.</ref><ref name="Times1"/> However, Mortimer was still allowed to take his [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree in law in October 1943. His close friend [[Michael Hamburger]] believed he had been very harshly treated.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Grove |first1=Valerie |title=A Voyage Round John Mortimer |date=2007 |publisher=Viking |location=London |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=z5HH4sqGWjAC&pg=PT83 83–84]}}</ref>