History Creator / JeffreyArcher

* IdenticalStranger: Danny Cartwright and Sir Nicholas Moncrieff in ''A Prisoner of Birth'', [[spoiler: to the extent that when Nicholas is killed in prison, his body is [[SwappedRoles mistaken for that of Danny]] -- who gets to go free ''as Nicholas'' when the latter's sentence finishes shortly after. Danny then uses Nicholas's wealth to revenge himself upon the people who set him up.]]

* UnknownRival: In ''First Among Equals'', Charles Seymour quickly identifies fellow-Tory MP Simon Kerslake as his most likely future rival for the Premiership and sets out to wreck his career. It takes Simon, who does not feel the same about Charles, a while to figure out that it's actually his colleague who is behind several of the misfortunes that befall him.
* WholePlotReference: ''A Prisoner of Birth'' is this to ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo''. This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by various characters being admirers of the work of Creator/AlexandreDumas. Archer's not the only British author to have done this; see also Creator/StephenFry's ''The Stars' Tennis Balls''.

* ''A Prisoner of Birth'' (2008)

** In ''Only Time Will Tell'', Jack Tarrant interrupts the wedding of Harry Clifton and Emma Barrington at this point in the service to declare that they cannot marry as Arthur is in fact the illegitimate son of Emma's father. The wedding goes no further.

As a result of the above, he has long been considered [[AcceptableTarget fair game]] by British satirists, in particular the ''Magazine/PrivateEye'' editor and ''Series/HaveIGotNewsForYou'' panelist Ian Hislop. After he was sent to prison, Creator/TheBBC broadcast a satire of his life called ''Jeffrey Archer: The Truth'' which portrayed him as a misunderstood hero who saved his country many times. It was written by Guy Jenkin, one of the co-writers of ''Series/DropTheDeadDonkey'', who described it as "an alternative history of modern Britain, which owes more to ''[[Film/TheNakedGun Naked Gun]]'' than to Creator/JonathanSwift". Archer was played by Creator/DamianLewis.

Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English author, former politician and convicted perjurer. Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament from 1969 to 1974 but decided not to seek re-election in the second general election of that year after a financial scandal that left him almost bankrupt. Subsequently, he turned to writing -- he wrote his first novel, ''Literature/NotAPennyMoreNotAPennyLess'', at that time. His third novel, ''Kane and Abel'', was an international success which reached number one on the ''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers New York Times]]'' best-seller list. To date, his books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.

* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: A central theme of the Clifton series. Harry Clifton, the protagonist, grows up believing himself to be the son of Arthur Clifton, a Bristol dock worker — not knowing that he is actually the result of a one-night stand between his mother Maisie and Hugo Barrington, whose family owns the docks. This creates all sorts of problems, up to and including some BrotherSisterIncest as Harry falls in love with Emma, Hugo's (legitimate) daughter — not realising that they are half-siblings.

* SpeakNowOrForeverHoldYourPeace: Used when William Warwick marries Beth Rainsford in ''Hidden in Plain Sight''. Determined to ruin William, [[BigBad Miles Faulkener]] objects at this point in their wedding, claiming that William is having an affair with his wife. Said wife, who unlike Miles is an invited guest at the wedding, is on hand to deny this. The vicar deems this to be sufficient reason to overturn the objection and proceeds with the wedding after having Miles thrown out of the church.

** The SmugSnake gun manufacturer who is trying to kill a liberal president in ''Shall We Tell the President?'' remains below the radar at the end and is last seen casually planning to have one of his captured henchmen (a ColdSniper who has no hope of denying the charges against him) killed, while expressing confidence he can get the other two, who are both {{Hate Sink}}s, released due to lack of evidence. [[DownplayedTrope Whether he succeeds is unclear]].

** Barry Stern, a former DirtyCop called to give evidence at an appeal against a conviction he helped to achieve in ''Nothing Ventured'', is asked about the accused's statement made at the time of his arrest. [[spoiler: It's alleged that a page was removed from it prior to the original trial, so the point in question is whether there were originally three pages (as the accused claimed) or just two (which is all the statement consisted of at the trial). Attempting to argue that this is irrelevant, Stern blurts out that "there was no middle page". The barrister questioning him is, of course, only too happy to point out that he had never said ''which'' of the pages was missing.]]

** Princess Anne unveils a painting at the end of ''Nothing Ventured''.

** Barry Stern, a former DirtyCop called to give evidence at an appeal against a conviction he helped to achieve in ''Nothing Ventured'', is asked about the accused's statement made at the time of his arrest. [[spoiler: It's alleged that a page was removed from it prior to the original trial, so the point in question is whether there were originally three pages (as the accused claimed) or just two (which is all the statement consisted of at the trial). Attempting to argue that this is irrelevant, Stern blurts out that "there was no middle page", thus inadvertently admitting ''which'' of the original three pages went missing.]]

** Various real-life politicians, among them UsefulNotes/EdwardHeath, UsefulNotes/HaroldWilson, and UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, appear in ''First Among Equals'', as do UsefulNotes/ElizabethII and UsefulNotes/CharlesIII. [[spoiler: The latter gets to become King significantly earlier in this story than in RealLife after his mother decides to abdicate upon reaching the retirement age of 65.]]

* MasterForger: A few of these appear and are usually LoveableRogue types.

** Less loveable is Eddie Leigh in ''Nothing Ventured'', who specialises in doing copies of works from the Dutch Golden Age. When interviewing him in prison, William Warwick is able to get him to let slip that he was responsible for forging a Rembrandt by coming across as a [[FanBoy fan of his work]], and is rewarded by the usually uncooperative con with a handshake.

** Various real-life politicians, among them UsefulNotes/EdwardHeath, UsefulNotes/HaroldWilson, and UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, appear in ''First Among Equals'', as do UsefulNotes/ElizabethII and former [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily Prince Charles]]. [[spoiler: Charles gets to become King significantly earlier in this story than in RealLife after his mother decides to abdicate upon reaching the retirement age of 65.]]

** In ''Honour Among Thieves'', it's the American Declaration of Independence which gets forged and stolen. [[spoiler: Twice.]]
** In ''False Impression'', it's a Van Gogh.
* MasterForger: A few of these appear and are usually LoveableRogue types. A good example is William O'Reilly, a.k.a. Dollar Bill (not [[Characters/{{Billions}} that one]]), who in ''Honour Among Thieves'' is commissioned to forge a copy of the American Declaration of Independence. [[spoiler: By ''both sides''.]]

** The short story "The First Miracle" (in ''A Quiver Full of Arrows'', but also published separately as a children's story) is a retelling of the story of the birth of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} from the point of view of a Roman boy [[spoiler: who turns out to be a young Pontius Pilate]].

* SecretTest: "Clean Sweep Ignatius" in ''A Twist In The Tale'' [[spoiler: threatens a Swiss bank manager, but is really double-checking their confidentiality.]]

* ShootTheBuilder: In ''Honour Among Thieves'', the CaperCrew leader has goons kidnap a plastic surgeon's daughter to make her father give a man an operation to look like the President as part of a plan to steal the Declaration of Independence. They tell the doctor that they’ll let him and his daughter go after the operation. [[ILied They don’t.]] They also debate killing the alcoholic MasterForger to ensure he doesn’t get LooseLips, but he ends up in custody before they can make a decision.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: Numerous references to passages from Literature/TheBible can be found in ''The Gospel According to Judas'', although that novella, co-written with the help of a Biblical scholar, is to all intents and purposes an utter refutation of the accounts of the life life of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} as told in the Gospels.