British dramatist and author Sir John Mortimer, who gave life to the famous character Rumpole of the Bailey, died today at the age of 85 after a long illness, according to his publisher.

"It's hard to think he's gone. At least we're lucky enough to have Rumpole to remind us just how remarkable he was," Tony Lacey, his editor at Viking, said.

“The term national treasure is so horribly overused but here was a genuine example,” he added, “He was a force of nature, which makes it so hard to believe that he has gone.”

Born in London in 1923, Mr. Mortimer lived a wonderful life, according to his closest friends, “beginning and ending” in a cottage in the Buckinghamshire village of Turville Heath, previously owned by his father.

However, his health caused him troubles in the last years, as he was suffering from bad vision and was also being confined to a wheelchair. But despite his poor health, he continued to be active, write more than one book a year and even make case appearances.

A successful writer, Mr. Mortimer was probably most famous for creating the criminal defense lawyer Horace Rumpole, one of the great comic fictional characters of his generation, but Mortimer was also a well respected barrister.

He managed to give more color and understanding to the public’s perception of law than perhaps any other modern figure, as he combined his two careers for years. Famous court appearances included the Oz censorship trial, the Linda Lovelace so-called Deep Throat case and numerous others involving alleged pornography.

Mortimer has added far more than most to the public stock of harmless pleasure, not least with his creation of the great Rumpole of the Bailey. His common sense, liberal values and delight in mischief were lessons to all those who lived in a drab, increasingly conformist Britain.

The head of BBC radio drama, Alison Hindell, told the BBC she felt Mr. Mortimer is a great loss for the huge circle of his admirers, fans and friends.

Educated at Harrow and Brasenose College, Oxford, Mr. Mortimer wrote his first radio play in 1957, but before achieving wider recognition, he was a script writer at Pinewood Studios. His TV work included 11 episodes of “Brideshead Revisited” and ITV drama “Paradise Postponed,” with Shameless star David Threlfall playing obnoxious Tory MP Leslie Titmuss. His most recent work was as a consultant on American comedy drama series Boston Legal.

The character of Horace Rumpole made his first appearance in a BBC Play for Today in 1975 before gracing numerous novels, short stories and a television series starring Leo McKern, who died in 2002. Mr. Mortimer called him "a wonderful actor." Rumpole’s adventures featured all sorts of issues, like euthanasia, fox-hunting, devil worship and children in care, but not at all in a pompous or preaching kind of way.

At the time of his death, his publisher said Mr. Mortimer had been working on the latest Rumpole novel, “Rumpole and the Younger Generation.” Sadly, the novel was just a quarter finished.