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"His wife and family were at his side," they said in a statement.
Mortimer's prolific literary output often poked fun at the legal profession.
Starting out in the 1940s, he was a prodigious author of plays, novels and television and movie scripts, including the 1999 "Tea with Mussolini" directed by Italian film and opera legend Franco Zeffirelli.
A vociferous supporter of the Labour Party, he was a sharp-tongued critic of prime minister Margaret Thatcher before her ouster in 1990 and the election of a Labour government in 1997.
As a lawyer he successfully defended Penguin in the 1960s over obscenity charges against D.H. Lawrence's steamy book "Lady Chatterley's Lover", doing the same for the publishers of the magazine Oz in 1971.
"Rumpole Of The Bailey" was turned into a long-running television series and string of radio programmes.
Tony Lacey, his editor at publishers Viking, said: "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."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown added: "It is very sad news to hear of the death of John Mortimer, one of Britain's best loved authors. Our thoughts are with his friends and family.
"He will be missed by many, but we will remember his great wit and humanity, his characters and stories, and the contribution he made in a legal and literary career spanning more than 60 years."
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Image of John Mortimer, by Bertrand Langlois.
Mortimer's prolific literary output often poked fun at the legal profession.
Starting out in the 1940s, he was a prodigious author of plays, novels and television and movie scripts, including the 1999 "Tea with Mussolini" directed by Italian film and opera legend Franco Zeffirelli.
A vociferous supporter of the Labour Party, he was a sharp-tongued critic of prime minister Margaret Thatcher before her ouster in 1990 and the election of a Labour government in 1997.
As a lawyer he successfully defended Penguin in the 1960s over obscenity charges against D.H. Lawrence's steamy book "Lady Chatterley's Lover", doing the same for the publishers of the magazine Oz in 1971.
"Rumpole Of The Bailey" was turned into a long-running television series and string of radio programmes.
Tony Lacey, his editor at publishers Viking, said: "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."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown added: "It is very sad news to hear of the death of John Mortimer, one of Britain's best loved authors. Our thoughts are with his friends and family.
"He will be missed by many, but we will remember his great wit and humanity, his characters and stories, and the contribution he made in a legal and literary career spanning more than 60 years."
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Image of John Mortimer, by Bertrand Langlois.
