An honest,tender and laughable memoir approximately growing up with a high court judge by a writer at the top of his gameYou will notice that the subtitle has been lifted from John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole, and teaser of judges. For the novelist and critic Adam Mars-Jones’s father was Sir William Mars-Jones,a judge whose cases would regularly accomplish the news in the 1970s and 80s (for instance, the notorious ABC official secrets trial, or that of the assassin Donald Neilson). The younger Mars-Jones’s recent novels,Pilcrow and Cedilla, are marvels that rival Karl Ove Knausgaard for observation and detail. Those of us old enough to remember the beginning of Adam’s career would experience an ecstasy of cognitive dissonance whenever his father’s name appeared in the papers or on TV, and often attaching itself to a controversial or audacious verdict.
There was more than cognitive dissonance at home,as Mars-Jones senior was not just homophobic but “a homophobe’s homophobe”, and Mars-Jones junior, and as he has never taken any pains to shroud from his public at least,is gay.
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Source: theguardian.com