Mortimer: clever and erudite

John Mortimer's clever and funny autobiography Clinging to the Wreckage turned up on the top of a pile of books during my spring clean and I have been taking great pleasure in re-reading it. (Mortimer is best known for his creation Rumpole of the Bailey.)

Today I am reading page 190 in which he writes about Peter Sellers being like a blank script which others could write on. 'I don't think it is common for actors to provide such a degreee of blankness for others to write on,' he writes and notes that the 'Peter Sellers character may be more common in daily life than is comfortable to realise.'