Bob Mortimer: Career, Books, Family and Verified Facts

Early life in Middlesbrough

Robert Renwick Mortimer was born in Middlesbrough on 23 May 1959 and was the youngest of four sons. His father died in a car crash when Mortimer was seven, a loss he later described as shaping his personality, according to Wikipedia (encyclopedic reference). Wikipedia says he attended King’s Manor School, but other sources name different schools, so this guide does not settle that point.

Partnership with Vic Reeves

Mortimer went to see Vic Reeves perform at the Goldsmiths Tavern in New Cross in 1986, and the pair became a double act, according to Waterstones (bookseller author page). Mortimer had trained as a solicitor and worked for Southwark Council, where he was nicknamed “The Cockroach King” for public health cases involving council property infestations. The breakthrough came with Vic Reeves Big Night Out, whose 1989 TV pilot is dated by Unifresher (student lifestyle site).

Gone Fishing with Paul Whitehouse

Mortimer later worked on Gone Fishing with Paul Whitehouse for BBC Two. CelebrityNetWorth.com dates the premiere to 2018, and Waterstones lists a companion book released in 2019. The show is the main reason many viewers know Mortimer outside the Reeves partnership.

The implication: Mortimer’s public career rests on one partnership that began in a New Cross pub in 1986.

What is Bob Mortimer’s best book?

No objective ranking of Mortimer’s books exists in the sources, so the list below gives titles with publisher and year only. The awards named are publisher-reported.

Bob Mortimer book

• And Away…, Simon & Schuster, September 2021. Named The Times and Sunday Times Humour Book of the Year and shortlisted for Non-fiction Book of the Year at the National Book Awards (Simon & Schuster).
• The Satsuma Complex, Simon & Schuster, 2022. His first novel, which won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction in 2023 (Simon & Schuster).
• The Hotel Avocado (2024), The Long Shoe (2025) and Michael (2026), as listed by Wikipedia. Publisher details for these three are not confirmed in the pack.

Memoir and writing

The memoir’s publisher metadata appears on Google Books (book metadata listing). In it, Mortimer writes openly about low mood, and reviewers such as Chortle (comedy review site) picked up that thread.

“Every day I would wake up hoping that the dark cloud of depression might have magically disappeared overnight, but it never did.”

Bob Mortimer, memoirist (Chortle (comedy review site))

The pattern: the memoir and The Satsuma Complex carry the strongest recognition in the sources, while the later titles lack publisher confirmation in this pack.

Is Bob Mortimer a millionaire?

No verified net worth figure for Bob Mortimer appears in the provided sources. Bright Journal Now (celebrity finance blog) states that UK personal wealth is not public record, and individuals have no legal duty to disclose total wealth.

Bob Mortimer net worth

Estimates in circulation range from about £4 million to £10 million, and none comes from an official disclosure. The Daily Mail’s April 2026 estimate of up to £10 million appears only as cited by Bright Journal Now. Bright Journal Now also reports a £1.3 million Victorian home in Royal Tunbridge Wells and co-ownership of Owl Power Ltd, but those points rest on tier-3 sources and are not verified here.

How net worth estimates are produced

None of the estimates in the pack states its method. Bright Journal Now describes Owl Power Ltd as Mortimer’s only active company filing, but no Companies House record was retrieved to confirm that. The gap is real, and it cannot be closed from the material supplied.

What this means: any article giving one net worth number for Mortimer is repeating an estimate, not a disclosed fact.

Why is Bob Mortimer in a wheelchair?

Mortimer has not publicly stated a long-term reason for using a wheelchair. The only sourced explanation in the pack links temporary wheelchair use to shingles during the filming of Gone Fishing.

Public statements on health

The Daily Express reported that Mortimer had shingles while filming Gone Fishing, which forced him to pull out, and that Lee Mack temporarily replaced him. Mortimer described the day he was moved to the riverbank in his own words.

“I was in a wheelchair, they didn’t show it on camera but I was carried down and plonked on the river bank with a rug.”

Bob Mortimer, comedian (Gone Fishing), via Daily Express (national newspaper)

Wikipedia records that Mortimer has had rheumatoid arthritis since childhood and controls it with steroids. None of the retrieved sources connects that condition to the wheelchair episode.

What is not publicly confirmed

CivicReport (low-confidence blog) reports that Mortimer uses a wheelchair long-term. The retrieved evidence does not support that claim, and the blog’s reliability is low.

The catch: the explanation rests on one tabloid interview, so it should be attributed to that account and nowhere else.

Does Bob Mortimer have grandchildren?

No retrieved source confirms that Bob Mortimer has grandchildren. The only related claim comes from CivicReport (low-confidence blog), which is also the source least able to bear weight in this guide.

When did Bob Mortimer lose his dad?

Wikipedia documents that Mortimer’s father died in a car crash when Mortimer was seven. Because Mortimer was born in 1959, that points to around 1966, but no exact date appears in the sources, so the year is an inference and should not be published as a fact.

Family background

Mortimer is the youngest of four sons, according to Simon & Schuster (publisher author page). Several sources report two sons, Harry and Tom, while one tier-3 source names Tom alone. He married Lisa Matthews in 2015, after a relationship of 22 years, according to The Press and Journal (Scottish newspaper).

What this means: family details in this guide stop where Mortimer’s own statements and the sources end.