What do you think?
Rate this book
Charade
It's June 1944 in an English seaside resort and a shy young man has just joined an army film unit making a documentary about army training. While shooting a cliff-scaling exercise a sergeant plunges to his death. It seems like an accident, but the shy young man is not convinced.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
About the author
John Mortimer
255 books233 followersJohn Clifford Mortimer was a novelist, playwright and former practising barrister. Among his many publications are several volumes of Rumpole stories and a trilogy of political novels, Paradise Postponed, Titmuss Regained and The Sound of Trumpets, featuring Leslie Titmuss - a character as brilliant as Rumpole. John Mortimer received a knighthood for his services to the arts in 1998.
Series:
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rapstone Chronicles
Series:
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rapstone Chronicles
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
May 2, 2026
From the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read – Charade by John Mortimer https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
9 out of 10
John Mortimer has two works on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, Charade and Titmuss Regained http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/03/t... , but there is much more to interest readers, such as the Rumpole series, which I look forward to take up http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/05/r...
Nonetheless, charade only has sixteen (soon to be seventeen) reviews and just about eighty seven ratings, which seems so ridiculously few, especially when we compare this to some preposterous works (not that anybody would reject the associated fame, wealth, well, maybe the fame comes with so much trouble attached, but the mansion, supercars and the pool would be nice, albeit positive psychology studies have looked at the Hedonic Adaptation effect and we adapt to material things, which make us feel good only briefly, and the happiest men, women, non-gender, trans and other have in common strong relationships with family and friends and not a considerable wealth…for the latter, time affluence is better) like Fifty Shades of Grey with its 2.2 million ratings or thereabouts and much less to take from…
We could conclude that the public does not know what to read (there is a thing called wisdom of the crowds, as in they have asked the weight of a cow at a fair and a crowd gave the correct answer and people can predict better, if you have a larger number, but that is because there would be some experts in the crowd and then the excesses are eliminated, but we can also look at how multitudes vote, the monsters they put in the highest office and wonder about how wise these large numbers are, when they buy into Big Steal, Anti Vaccine, Lasers and Wild Fires, and other preposterous conspiracies) and therefore it is good we have this (and so many other notes, number one reviewer for this land no less, until some fake account would start posting copy and paste ‘reviews’ and goodreads has done shit all about it) account of Charade.
We do not know the name of the hero and narrator of what can be seen as a superb comedy, a crime story and also a guide on making movies, although if you are looking for the Ultimate Manual on the subject, there is nothing better that you can do than read Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman, winner of two Oscars, for Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and All the President’s Men, and scriptwriter for so many other great movies http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/05/r...
‘A director must be an artist, a politician and something of a dictator…films are all a matter of organization, organization and discipline, of course, we don't do much organization to begin with…Just arrange for meals, some rooms and see maybe you get a chance to say quiet please…you have to start from the bottom’ these are some lessons that the crew of the film unit give our main character, but they do not appear to be applied, he jumps ahead of the queue and then maybe even loses the interest in the business…
Upon his arrival at the hotel where the film crew is accommodated, in June of 1944, the young man whose name is interestingly kept secret finds that the hotel staff are very unhappy with the film unit – anticipating, the impression made by most of the them would not be very positive, on the contrary they would look quite arrogant, selfish, self-absorbed and oblivious to the pain of others, or maybe better said, impervious to what is happening in the real world – and there would be tensions between the crew and the military that are supposed to appear in the film, cooperate with the Unit and end up severing the ties…
The hero has had a recommendation from his mother, who had sent a message to the director of the film – a sort of majestic, revered figure among the crew, praised for his impeccable organizing abilities and feared – who has a very close connection with the protagonist (spoiler alert – the director is the father of the young man) and is absconded for most of the time, working until three in the morning, helped by his wife, Angela Upshot, a woman that is certainly abused, isolated, estranged from the husband, according to the (at least some ultra-liberal) rules of this age, but she appears to be somehow content to stay with him – perhaps as an indication to her masochistic tendencies – in spite of the many suitors, and a few lovers she has…
The director has five assistants in this tale, Bert is the first assistant and that is a very coveted position, for he gives orders to the second (and then it goes down across the hierarchy) and when they try to praise the job, they also mention that all the girls who want to act (and they are so many) would be seduced by the power of the first assistant (and according to Henry Kissinger ‘power is the best aphrodisiac’) and our hero would be become the fifth – with the hope that in about twenty years, the going rate, he would access to the first position – and take the heat from all the rest, commandeered by the fourth assistant.
However, this being the ‘hero’, he does make very fast progress and would be propositioned for promotions, notwithstanding the fact that the progress made in filming is for a long time (two previous months) nil, since it has been raining and besides, they do seem to be inefficient, with Doris, the operational chief who is quite sadistic and mean, the cameraman, a good professional on the set, but inhumane off it, the army has been cooperating only vaguely…when they are sent a message that they are waited for the shoot, they are interrupted in the middle of a ping pong game (which for the scriptwriter is a proof of the degradation in the army, for they had played more prestigious games in the past, not low table tennis) and the captain is late, while the major has had some business to attend to, which is he is out in town to buy…ping pong balls
There is a gruesome element, for the rather hated sergeant dies during the shoot, as he is climbing with a rope and that breaks and the man falls off a cliff (they are preparing for the D Day operations apparently, and there are some dramatic statements on that, the importance of fighting for the country, the shallowness of the filming people) giving room for speculation and sometimes certainty that this was not an accident, but plain murder, the only problem being the identity of the killer, would it be someone who is interested in the widow of the vicious, abusive when he had been alive sergeant, or maybe the scriptwriter, who finds that his shameful past would be exposed by the same individual…
9 out of 10
John Mortimer has two works on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, Charade and Titmuss Regained http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/03/t... , but there is much more to interest readers, such as the Rumpole series, which I look forward to take up http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/05/r...
Nonetheless, charade only has sixteen (soon to be seventeen) reviews and just about eighty seven ratings, which seems so ridiculously few, especially when we compare this to some preposterous works (not that anybody would reject the associated fame, wealth, well, maybe the fame comes with so much trouble attached, but the mansion, supercars and the pool would be nice, albeit positive psychology studies have looked at the Hedonic Adaptation effect and we adapt to material things, which make us feel good only briefly, and the happiest men, women, non-gender, trans and other have in common strong relationships with family and friends and not a considerable wealth…for the latter, time affluence is better) like Fifty Shades of Grey with its 2.2 million ratings or thereabouts and much less to take from…
We could conclude that the public does not know what to read (there is a thing called wisdom of the crowds, as in they have asked the weight of a cow at a fair and a crowd gave the correct answer and people can predict better, if you have a larger number, but that is because there would be some experts in the crowd and then the excesses are eliminated, but we can also look at how multitudes vote, the monsters they put in the highest office and wonder about how wise these large numbers are, when they buy into Big Steal, Anti Vaccine, Lasers and Wild Fires, and other preposterous conspiracies) and therefore it is good we have this (and so many other notes, number one reviewer for this land no less, until some fake account would start posting copy and paste ‘reviews’ and goodreads has done shit all about it) account of Charade.
We do not know the name of the hero and narrator of what can be seen as a superb comedy, a crime story and also a guide on making movies, although if you are looking for the Ultimate Manual on the subject, there is nothing better that you can do than read Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman, winner of two Oscars, for Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and All the President’s Men, and scriptwriter for so many other great movies http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/05/r...
‘A director must be an artist, a politician and something of a dictator…films are all a matter of organization, organization and discipline, of course, we don't do much organization to begin with…Just arrange for meals, some rooms and see maybe you get a chance to say quiet please…you have to start from the bottom’ these are some lessons that the crew of the film unit give our main character, but they do not appear to be applied, he jumps ahead of the queue and then maybe even loses the interest in the business…
Upon his arrival at the hotel where the film crew is accommodated, in June of 1944, the young man whose name is interestingly kept secret finds that the hotel staff are very unhappy with the film unit – anticipating, the impression made by most of the them would not be very positive, on the contrary they would look quite arrogant, selfish, self-absorbed and oblivious to the pain of others, or maybe better said, impervious to what is happening in the real world – and there would be tensions between the crew and the military that are supposed to appear in the film, cooperate with the Unit and end up severing the ties…
The hero has had a recommendation from his mother, who had sent a message to the director of the film – a sort of majestic, revered figure among the crew, praised for his impeccable organizing abilities and feared – who has a very close connection with the protagonist (spoiler alert – the director is the father of the young man) and is absconded for most of the time, working until three in the morning, helped by his wife, Angela Upshot, a woman that is certainly abused, isolated, estranged from the husband, according to the (at least some ultra-liberal) rules of this age, but she appears to be somehow content to stay with him – perhaps as an indication to her masochistic tendencies – in spite of the many suitors, and a few lovers she has…
The director has five assistants in this tale, Bert is the first assistant and that is a very coveted position, for he gives orders to the second (and then it goes down across the hierarchy) and when they try to praise the job, they also mention that all the girls who want to act (and they are so many) would be seduced by the power of the first assistant (and according to Henry Kissinger ‘power is the best aphrodisiac’) and our hero would be become the fifth – with the hope that in about twenty years, the going rate, he would access to the first position – and take the heat from all the rest, commandeered by the fourth assistant.
However, this being the ‘hero’, he does make very fast progress and would be propositioned for promotions, notwithstanding the fact that the progress made in filming is for a long time (two previous months) nil, since it has been raining and besides, they do seem to be inefficient, with Doris, the operational chief who is quite sadistic and mean, the cameraman, a good professional on the set, but inhumane off it, the army has been cooperating only vaguely…when they are sent a message that they are waited for the shoot, they are interrupted in the middle of a ping pong game (which for the scriptwriter is a proof of the degradation in the army, for they had played more prestigious games in the past, not low table tennis) and the captain is late, while the major has had some business to attend to, which is he is out in town to buy…ping pong balls
There is a gruesome element, for the rather hated sergeant dies during the shoot, as he is climbing with a rope and that breaks and the man falls off a cliff (they are preparing for the D Day operations apparently, and there are some dramatic statements on that, the importance of fighting for the country, the shallowness of the filming people) giving room for speculation and sometimes certainty that this was not an accident, but plain murder, the only problem being the identity of the killer, would it be someone who is interested in the widow of the vicious, abusive when he had been alive sergeant, or maybe the scriptwriter, who finds that his shameful past would be exposed by the same individual…
October 18, 2020
Not really on a par with Rumpole or Paradise Postponed but a nicely written, interesting little book that may throw mystery fans but then it was clearly never intended as a mystery so...
August 14, 2019
This is a quirky book. Mortimer's biography states that he worked on film crew during World War II. That is exactly what this insider book is about.
A British film team is attached to an armed force division in order to document and film a war propaganda film. Not much happens as the weather keeps the crew from optimum filming conditions. Instead the team drinks and kills time. The army division is also in a funk waiting for orders for to deploy. They spend time playing cards, ping pong and other games to occupy their time.
An accidental death takes place during the filming. The accident sets both the film crew and army divisions in flux as they try and regroup. The story is told from the point of view of a young assistant to the film director who meets curious characters from the film and military teams for the first time. He falls for the director's young wife Angela. A coy and innocent infatuation and chaste relations takes place, but never takes off.
Light in plot. The book is Mortimer's memoirs of his experience working on films during the war. His vignettes are insightful and illustrate an ecclectic set of characters. The story lacks any central cohesion, but that is partially by design. The unstructured and amorphous charter of the film crew is mirrored by the directionless action that flows herky, jerky through this short book.
The writing is solid. Readers will wonder why the book was written, as there seems to be no climax to the little action that takes place. Mortimer, with a nod to Kafka, purposefully leaves lose ends and winds down the action with little excitement. It is difficult to capture the monotony, absurdity and abstraction of the film project, but Mortimer achieves this effectively.
A British film team is attached to an armed force division in order to document and film a war propaganda film. Not much happens as the weather keeps the crew from optimum filming conditions. Instead the team drinks and kills time. The army division is also in a funk waiting for orders for to deploy. They spend time playing cards, ping pong and other games to occupy their time.
An accidental death takes place during the filming. The accident sets both the film crew and army divisions in flux as they try and regroup. The story is told from the point of view of a young assistant to the film director who meets curious characters from the film and military teams for the first time. He falls for the director's young wife Angela. A coy and innocent infatuation and chaste relations takes place, but never takes off.
Light in plot. The book is Mortimer's memoirs of his experience working on films during the war. His vignettes are insightful and illustrate an ecclectic set of characters. The story lacks any central cohesion, but that is partially by design. The unstructured and amorphous charter of the film crew is mirrored by the directionless action that flows herky, jerky through this short book.
The writing is solid. Readers will wonder why the book was written, as there seems to be no climax to the little action that takes place. Mortimer, with a nod to Kafka, purposefully leaves lose ends and winds down the action with little excitement. It is difficult to capture the monotony, absurdity and abstraction of the film project, but Mortimer achieves this effectively.
January 4, 2021
It's a slender little book that one assumes to be fairly autobiographical in its setting, and from what I know of the late 30s/early 40s film scene (having read a lot of archive film magazines), it's pretty accurate in that regard; I was reminded of Their Finest Hour and a Half, also set in the world of wartime film production, only that was a historical novel, the result of researches similar to mine, and this is presumably verging on being a primary source!
If Mortimer had not gone on much later to become famous, I don't think this volume from the 1940s would have got reprinted. However, although it's a fairly slight work there are more implied depths than you might expect, and I enjoyed it. None of the relationships are particularly simple; none of the characters are entirely unsympathetic, and while this may be an apprentice work it's a pretty good one.
If Mortimer had not gone on much later to become famous, I don't think this volume from the 1940s would have got reprinted. However, although it's a fairly slight work there are more implied depths than you might expect, and I enjoyed it. None of the relationships are particularly simple; none of the characters are entirely unsympathetic, and while this may be an apprentice work it's a pretty good one.
July 18, 2022
It is June 1944, British troops in the town are getting ready for the Normandy landings A film unit is producing a documentary about their training. A young production assistant witnesses a fatal accident during filming. He suspects that the accident may not have been an accident. He pursues it and another mystery takes us involving the film director and his past. Colleagues try to persuade him to leave well enough alone.
This is an an entertaining story but not a great one.
This is an an entertaining story but not a great one.
January 28, 2025
It is a book that is hard to classify - historical, semi-autobiographical, coming-of- age? A snapshot or a glimpse into life in a small south coat seaside resort, through the eyes of a young man who, with little life experience, joins a somewhat raucous film crew filming an army unit preparing for D-Day.
It’s Miss Marple in places (the fading gentility of the hotel, the unexpected death) PG Wodehouse in others. Oh, and there’s a bit of a romance (as well as domestic violence).
I enjoyed it.
It’s Miss Marple in places (the fading gentility of the hotel, the unexpected death) PG Wodehouse in others. Oh, and there’s a bit of a romance (as well as domestic violence).
I enjoyed it.
January 25, 2020
Even though it is very short, the impulse to skim this tedious book was very strong. If I hadn't been doing the reading challenge, I'd have given up half way.
Bought it because I liked the Rumpole books, but this is frustrating, uninteresting and very, very boring.
Bought it because I liked the Rumpole books, but this is frustrating, uninteresting and very, very boring.
November 14, 2023
Set a long time ago. Movies were just beginning. A war was starting. And the two were put together. The attitude towards the fall. And towards marriage. From the fifth assistant director to insurance
February 5, 2017
Not the best of Mortimer, but a well crafted enjoyable little novel, which shows inklings of what was to come.
October 5, 2025
I think this was a genre too far, not memorable but for feeling disappointed.
December 11, 2025
An early John Mortimer outing reads very well, but is perhaps too ambitious for its own good. Strangely, not very enjoyable
February 26, 2017
Of its time but quite enjoyable
February 9, 2017
I flirted with a 4 rating and if my scale was like most GR raters insread of mine where 3 is a good rating and 4 very good.
I think the GR crowd tends to under rate this novel because many of the readers were expecting something more like the Rumpole stories. It is much different than that and a bit difficult to categorize, but perhaps literary crime fiction will do. The Guardian classed it as a comedy a few years back but do not read it for that unless you appreciate some of the dry and weird stuff the Brits call comedy. There certainly is an element of farce when viewed as a whole.
I saw a WW2 movie once with a similar subplot and setting to this novel. The screenwriter may have adapted it from this although there were many dissimilarities.
I think the GR crowd tends to under rate this novel because many of the readers were expecting something more like the Rumpole stories. It is much different than that and a bit difficult to categorize, but perhaps literary crime fiction will do. The Guardian classed it as a comedy a few years back but do not read it for that unless you appreciate some of the dry and weird stuff the Brits call comedy. There certainly is an element of farce when viewed as a whole.
I saw a WW2 movie once with a similar subplot and setting to this novel. The screenwriter may have adapted it from this although there were many dissimilarities.
July 2, 2013
"It's June1944 in an English seaside resort and ashy young man has just joined an army film unit making a documentary about army training.
"While the crew are shooting a cliff-scaling exercise, arope snaps and a sergeant plunges to his death. Was it an accident or murder? Why is our inexperienced hero so convinced it was no accident?
"Like the bestselling Paradise Postponed, Charade is tremendous entertainment brought to life through a cast of gloriously eccentric and unforgettable characters."
I think I'm going to swear off John Mortimer. His books never make much sense to me, his characters are all daft, and none of them seem to act out of any sort of rational engagement with the world.
There were a couple of lovely bits in the book:
"a half-slice of moon"
"the domes and minarets of the glass bottles on her dressing table"
but all in all, I found it convoluted and impenetrable.
"While the crew are shooting a cliff-scaling exercise, arope snaps and a sergeant plunges to his death. Was it an accident or murder? Why is our inexperienced hero so convinced it was no accident?
"Like the bestselling Paradise Postponed, Charade is tremendous entertainment brought to life through a cast of gloriously eccentric and unforgettable characters."
I think I'm going to swear off John Mortimer. His books never make much sense to me, his characters are all daft, and none of them seem to act out of any sort of rational engagement with the world.
There were a couple of lovely bits in the book:
"a half-slice of moon"
"the domes and minarets of the glass bottles on her dressing table"
but all in all, I found it convoluted and impenetrable.
Want to Read
July 12, 2016* 1000 novels everyone must read: the definitive list
Selected by the Guardian's Review team and a panel of expert judges, this list includes only novels – no memoirs, no short stories, no long poems – from any decade and in any language. Originally published in thematic supplements – love, crime, comedy, family and self, state of the nation, science fiction and fantasy, war and travel – they appear here for the first time in a single list.
Selected by the Guardian's Review team and a panel of expert judges, this list includes only novels – no memoirs, no short stories, no long poems – from any decade and in any language. Originally published in thematic supplements – love, crime, comedy, family and self, state of the nation, science fiction and fantasy, war and travel – they appear here for the first time in a single list.
January 20, 2013
Silly plot which ended up going nowhere, with unsympathetic and unlikeable characters. Not unenjoyable, but not enjoyable either. Lacking Mortimer's later style - it was overwritten in a way that a first novel often can be.
October 17, 2016
A lot of the time, while reading Charade, I was imagining heavily veiled people walking about corridors, occasionally bumping into each other. Very detached and not particularly funny. The Guardian's 1000 novels list inexplicably includes it and has it under 'comedy' (apparently, it is farcical).
July 17, 2009
An interesting story, and well crafted. However, the fact that this was Mortimer's first novel is rather evident. It has none of the finesse of the Rumpole chronicles.
August 4, 2016
Boring. This was the first novel by the author of the popular Rumpole series.
July 25, 2014
This first novel by John Mortimer was a disappointing read.
April 10, 2015
Awful book. Mind numbingly dull and unimpressive and I don't want to think about it anymore
March 31, 2011
too dreadful to finish
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews