Editing John Mortimer (section)

==Legal career==
Mortimer was called to the Bar ([[Inner Temple]]) in 1948, at the age of 25. His early career covered testamentary and divorce work, but on [[Queen's Counsel|taking silk]] in 1966, he began to undertake criminal law.<ref name="Telegraph"/> His highest profile came from cases relating to claims of [[Obscenity#United Kingdom|obscenity]], which, according to Mortimer, were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance."<ref name="IHT"/>

He has sometimes been cited wrongly as one of the ''[[Lady Chatterley's Lover#British obscenity trial|Lady Chatterley's Lover]]'' obscenity trial defence team.<ref>His biographer Valerie Grove dismisses this in [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article5533223.ece tribute article] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091005183429/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article5533223.ece |date=5 October 2009}}.</ref> He did, however, successfully defend publishers [[John Calder]] and Marion Boyars in a 1968 appeal against a conviction for publishing [[Hubert Selby Jr.]]'s ''[[Last Exit to Brooklyn#Trial|Last Exit to Brooklyn]]''.<ref name="Telegraph"/> He assumed a similar role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of ''[[The Little Red Schoolbook]]''.<ref name="Telegraph"/>

In 1971, Mortimer managed to defend the editors of the satirical paper ''[[Oz (magazine)|Oz]]'' against a charge of "conspiracy to corrupt and debauch the morals of the young of the Realm", which might have carried a sentence of 12 years' hard labour.<ref>[https://flashbak.com/the-schoolkids-oz-dirty-books-and-the-downfall-of-the-dirty-squad-56477/ The "Schoolkids" Oz, Soho, and the Downfall of the "Dirty Squad"] ''flashbak.com'', accessed 2 November 2020.</ref><ref>[https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2014/06/archive/ From the archive: John Mortimer on defending Felix Dennis at the Oz trial] 24 June 2014 ''www.indexoncensorship.org'', accessed 2 November 2020.</ref> In 1976, he defended ''[[Gay News]]'' editor Denis Lemon (''[[Whitehouse v. Lemon]]'') against charges of [[blasphemous libel]] for publishing [[James Kirkup]]'s ''[[The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name]]''; Lemon was given a suspended prison sentence, which was overturned on appeal.<ref>Brett Humphreys [http://www.pinktriangle.org.uk/glh/214/humphreys.html "The Law that Dared to Lay the Blame..."] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303172729/http://www.pinktriangle.org.uk/glh/214/humphreys.html |date=3 March 2016}}, pinktriangle.org.uk; accessed 13 January 2016.</ref> He successfully defended [[Virgin Records]] in a 1977 obscenity hearing for using the word [[bollocks]] in the title of the [[Sex Pistols]] album ''[[Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols]]'' and the manager of the Nottingham branch of [[Virgin Megastores|Virgin record shop chain]] for displaying and selling the record. Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984.<ref name="Telegraph"/>