Dear Lupin...: Letters to a Wayward Son
Charlie Mortimer
Nostalgic, witty and filled with characters and situations that people of all ages will recognise, Dear Lupin is the entire correspondence of a Father to his only son, spanning nearly 25 years. Roger Mortimer's sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching, always generous letters to his son are packed with anecdotes and sharp observations, with a unique analogy for each and every scrape Charlie Mortimer got himself into. The trials and tribulations of his youth and early adulthood are received by his father with humour, understanding and a touch of resignation, making them the perfect reminder of when letters were common, but always special.
A racing journalist himself, Roger Mortimer wrote for a living, yet still wrote more than 150 letters to his son as he left school, and lived in places such as South America, Africa, Weston-super-Mare and eventually London. These letters form a memoir of their relationship, and an affectionate portrait of a time gone by.
Product Details
About Charlie Mortimer
Reviews for Dear Lupin...: Letters to a Wayward Son
The Spectator
By turns exasperated, affectionate, touching and wry, the letters brim with a father's love for his son. An absolute delight.
Daily Mail
...this book makes you cry as well as laugh.
Charles Moore
Daily Telegraph
These hilarious missives from an eccentric father to an errant son have all the playful oddity of the Dear Bill letters.
Sunday Times
Very, very funny.
Sunday Times
A collection of brilliantly written letters from a world-weary father to his feckless son. They could offer a money back guarantee if you don't laugh - the publishers' money would be safe.
Jeremy Paxman
Guardian Books of the Year
In an era when letter writing is a vanishing art form, this idiosyncratic collection from a father to his errant son is a delight.
Telegraph
Herein is comedy gold... a delight, a labour of fatherly love in which a deep if slightly exasperated affection is always legible between the lines.
Racing Post
Affectionate... a poignant biography.
Oldie
Entirely delightful: funny, wise and full of insights into the relationship between fathers and sons.
The Lady
Witty and affectionate. Letter writing might be a dying art, but this book proves what a glorious art it is.
Tatler
Wry trenchant, often extremely funny, but also charmingly forbearing and forgiving.
Country Life
An examination of the father/son relationship and a snapshot of 1960s and 1970s society in all its contemporaneous freshness... never loses its ability to make the reader laugh.
Country Life
'these often exasperated but hilarious letters should be required reading by all young things who think they know better. Charlie says this book is a tribute to his father and what a fine tribute it is. Roger's optimism in the most unpromising of circumstances will stay with you long after his last delightful letter is read.'
Sunday Express
Poignant, waspish and gossipy, it is also very, very funny.
Mail Online