The Sound of Trumpets

John, Mortimer

ISBN 10: 0141800348 ISBN 13: 9780141800349

Publisher: Penguin, 1999

Synopsis

When a Tory MP is found dead in a swimming-pool wearing only a leopard-skin bikini, the embittered Leslie (now Lord) Titmuss sees the perfect opportunity to re-enter the political arena. All he needs is a puppet. Terry Flitton, fresh-faced image of New Labour, is perfect. Accompanied by his beautiful, PC wife, Kate, Terry heads blindly for the Hartscombe by-election. But champagne socialist Agnes could wreck Terry's election dream? A brilliant political comedy THE SOUND OF TRUMPETS completesTHE TITMUSS TRILOGY.

About this title

Review

In Paradise Postponed and Titmuss Regained John Mortimer took some fairly hefty swipes at the Thatcherite Conservative governments and the way the Labour Party had let them get away with it. The fact that Labour is the government at this writing appears to have changed nothing and the final part of this post-war political trilogy launches a pretty good swipe at them as well. New Labour--or "conservatism with water" as the trilogy's most enduring character, Leslie Titmuss, calls them--are seen, like the appearance of identical high streets in every town, as just another example of the blanding of Britain. So enter Titmuss--now retired from the Thatcher cabinet and called Lord Titmuss, First Baron Skurfield--to shake things up. He plays a wonderful Mephistopheles to a proto-Blairite parliamentary candidate's Faust as the electors in the tranquil Rapstone Valley again become a microcosm of British public life. Champagne socialists seem to come out of it all rather well, (as, it must be said, do reactionary old brutes like Titmuss) and the real venom is again reserved for the insipid political clones and power junkies. All in all vintage Mortimer. --Nick Wroe

About the Author

SIR JOHN MORTIMER is a playwright, novelist and former practising barrister. His novels include FELIX IN THE UNDERWORLD, and the RUMPOLE books. Sir John lives in the Chilterns with his wife and two daughters. In 1998 he received a knighthood for hisservices to the arts.
RIK MAYALL is an actor/writer, but he is best known for his roles as RIK in THE YOUNG ONES, RICHIE in BOTTOM and as ALAN B'STARD in THE NEW STATESMAN.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0141800348
• ISBN 13: 9780141800349
• Binding: Audio Cassette