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, Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less, at that time. His third novel, Kane and Abel, was an international success which reached number one on the New York Times best-seller list. To date, his books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.
Several aspects of Archer's life (particularly his political career after he became a best-selling novelist) have been eventful to the point where an unauthorised biography of him was called Stranger than Fiction. In 1987, he successfully sued the Daily Star for libel after it accused him of paying money to a prostitute. He went on to become a life peer in 1992 and, despite allegations of financial misconduct note , theft note , plagiarism note and plain old lying (or, as his wife put it, his "gift for inaccurate précis"), by the end of the decade he became the Conservative candidate to be the first elected Mayor of London — only to resign his candidacy when it emerged that he'd lied in his 1987 libel case. After being found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice, he was imprisoned from 2001 to 2003. Although this ended his political career, he remains a member of the House of Lords (mainly because there was no legal provision through which he could be removed, short of the passing of a new Act of Parliament note ) but does not take an active part in proceedings.
As a result of the above, he has long been considered fair game by British satirists, in particular the Private Eye editor and Have I Got News for You panelist Ian Hislop. After he was sent to prison, The BBC 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 Drop the Dead Donkey, who described it as "an alternative history of modern Britain, which owes more to Naked Gun than to Jonathan Swift". Archer was played by Damian Lewis.
Works by Jeffrey Archer
Novels
- Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less (1976)
- Shall We Tell the President? (1977; revised edition 1986)
- Kane and Abel (1979)
- The Prodigal Daughter (1982)
- First Among Equals (1984)
- A Matter of Honour (1986)
- As the Crow Flies (1991)
- Honour Among Thieves (1993)
- The Fourth Estate (1996)
- The Eleventh Commandment (1998)
- Sons of Fortune (2002)
- False Impression (2005)
- The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot, with Francis J. Moloney (2007)
- A Prisoner of Birth (2008)
- Paths of Glory (2009)
- Heads You Win (2018)
- The Clifton Chronicles
- Only Time Will Tell (2011)
- The Sins of the Father (2012)
- Best Kept Secret (2013)
- Be Careful What You Wish For (2014)
- Mightier Than the Sword (2015)
- Cometh the Hour (2016)
- This Was a Man (2016)
- The William Warwick Series
- Nothing Ventured (2019)
- Hidden in Plain Sight (2020)
- Turn a Blind Eye (2021)
- Over My Dead Body (2022)
- Next in Line (2022)
- Traitor's Gate (2023)
Short story collections
- A Quiver Full of Arrows (1980)
- A Twist in the Tale (1988)
- Twelve Red Herrings (1994)
- To Cut a Long Story Short (2000)
- Cat O'Nine Tales (2006)
- And Thereby Hangs a Tale (2010)
- Tell Tale (2017)
- The Short, the Long and the Tall (2020)
Plays
- Beyond Reasonable Doubt (1987)
- Exclusive (1989)
- The Accused (2000)
Non-fiction
- The Prison Diaries Volume 1: Hell — Belmarsh (2002; originally published as A Prison Diary)
- The Prison Diaries Volume 2: Purgatory — Wayland (2003)
- The Prison Diaries Volume 3: Heaven — North Sea Camp (2004)
The following tropes can be found in Jeffrey Archer's books
- Adapted Out: When Archer rewrote First Among Equals for the American market, he got rid of one of the four main characters — apparently because he'd been told that an American audience would have difficulty understanding a multi-party political system. As a result, several plot elements revolving around the character who'd been removed were transferred to other characters. The ending of the novel differed in the American version as well, with a different character becoming Prime Minister than in the original British version (which has since gone on sale in the US).
- Amoral Attorney: Booth Watson QC, lawyer to Miles Faulkner, the main villain of the William Warwick stories.
- As the Good Book Says...: Numerous references to passages from The Bible 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 of Jesus as told in the Gospels.
- Author Avatar: Simon Kerslake, one of the four MPs in First Among Equals, is this to an extent; he shares Archer's (moderate Conservative) political views and, like his creator, narrowly avoids bankruptcy following some risky investments.
- Based on a True Story: A few examples:
- The Fourth Estate is a lightly-fictionalised retelling of the real-life rivalry between press barons Robert Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch.
- Paths of Glory is based on the story of George Mallory, the mountaineer who died attempting to climb Everest in 1924. The novel supports the claim that he actually made it to the top — 29 years before Hilary and Tenzing managed to do so.
- Archer has also stated that quite a few of his short stories are based on "based on known incidents (some of them embellished with considerable licence)". In particular, nine of the twelve stories in Cat O'Nine Tales are based on tales he heard while in prison.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: A highbrow version of this can be found with William and Philippa in the short story "Old Love" (in A Quiver Full of Arrows).
- The Caper: A few of Archer's plots are this.
- Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less is about the four victims of a con man who join forces to get back the money he stole from them.
- The first part of Honour Among Thieves concerns the heist of the American Declaration of Independence from the National Archives Building in Washington DC; Saddam Hussein puts up the money for the job, and the crew includes a mafia boss, a disgraced film director, a Master Forger and an actor who bears an uncanny resemblance to Bill Clinton. In the second part, the CIA and Mossad join forces to steal it back from the Ba'ath Party HQ in Baghdad. Although at the end, it turns out the original never left the USA...
- Dead Person Impersonation: In The Sins of the Father, Harry Clifton assumes the identity of his shipmate Tom Bradshaw after the latter dies when their ship sinks ... little knowing that Tom is wanted by the US Navy for desertion.
- Decoy Protagonist: New York mafia boss Antonio 'Tony' Cavalli is front and centre in the first half Honour Among Thieves as he organises The Caper. Then he's hardly seen at all in the second half as the focus shifts to the CIA's academic-turned-spy Scott Bradley and Mossad trainee Hannah Kopec.
- Even Evil Has Standards: In Honour Among Thieves, Dollar Bill — the Caper Crew's Master Forger — is appalled when he learns that the Declaration of Independence heist was bankrolled by Saddam Hussein. Turns out, so was Tony Cavalli, the organiser of the heist, who actually sent Saddam a second forged Declaration as he couldn't bring himself to send the original to America's enemy. This is only revealed right at the end, meaning that the second heist — Mossad and the CIA going to Baghdad to steal it back — was All for Nothing.
- Heads or Tails?: A coin toss is used to determine the outcome of an otherwise tied election in First Among Equals. The same happens in an American setting rather than a British one in Sons of Fortune. And, as the title might suggest, a coin toss is what drives the plot of Heads You Win.
- Historical Domain Character: A few of these pop up...
- Harold Macmillan appears in Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less.
- In the original version of Shall We Tell the President?, the titular US President is Ted Kennedy, with Dale Bumpers as his VP.
- Various real-life politicians, among them Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, and Margaret Thatcher, appear in First Among Equals, as do Elizabeth II and Charles III. The latter gets to become King significantly earlier in this story than in Real Life, as his mother decides to abdicate upon reaching the retirement age of 65.
- The prologue to A Matter of Honour manages to feature both Vladimir Lenin and Hermann Göring. Not in the same scene, mind you.
- Although he is by no means a main character, Saddam Hussein is the Big Bad of Honour Among Thieves. Bill Clinton and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, also make cameo appearances.
- George Mallory
is the main character in Paths of Glory. - Princess Anne unveils a painting at the end of Nothing Ventured.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: More than one Archer character slips up in this manner while giving evidence at a trial.
- Barry Stern, a former Dirty Cop called to give evidence at an appeal against a conviction he helped to achieve in Nothing Ventured, is asked about the defendant's statement made at the time of his arrest. It's alleged that a page was removed from it by Stern prior to the original trial, so the point in question is whether there were originally three pages (as the defendant claimed) or just two (which is all the statement consisted of at the trial). Stern asserts 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.
- Karma Houdini:
- In Honour Among Thieves, the Professional Killer who murders multiple people (including a teenaged hostage) is still at large at the end. Secret Police General Ripper Hamil (The Dragon for the employer of the assassin's boss) is also still alive and in power at the end of the book, after causing the brutal deaths of several heroes.
- The Smug Snake 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 Cold Sniper who has no hope of denying the charges against him) killed, while expressing confidence he can get the other two, who are both Hate Sinks, released due to lack of evidence Whether he succeeds is unclear.
- Miles Faulkner evades the prison sentence he deserves in Nothing Ventured by donating a valuable painting to the Fitzmolean Museum, although even the judge who sentences him and then declares it to be a suspended sentence is sceptical of his motives, and it is later revealed that the painting is a fake anyway.
- MacGuffin: A few.
- In A Matter of Honour, it's the Tsar's copy of a secret treaty which states that the Alaska Purchase was actually a 99-year lease.
- In Honour Among Thieves, it's the American Declaration of Independence, which gets forged and stolen. Twice.
- In False Impression, it's a Van Gogh.
- In Nothing Ventured, it's a Rembrandt.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: 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 who died not long after he was born — not knowing that he is actually the result of a one-night stand between his mother Maisie and Hugo Barrington, whose family owns the shipping company that employed Arthur. This creates all sorts of problems, up to and including some Brother–Sister Incest as Harry falls in love with Emma, Hugo's (legitimate) daughter — not realising that they are half-siblings.
- Master Forger: A few of these appear, some of them Loveable Rogue types.
- A good example is William O'Reilly, a.k.a. Dollar Bill (not that one), who in Honour Among Thieves is commissioned to forge a copy of the American Declaration of Independence. By both sides.
- 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 fan of his work, and is rewarded by the usually uncooperative con with a handshake.
- Miscarriage of Justice: Happens to Danny Cartwright in A Prisoner of Birth — he's falsely accused of murdering his prospective brother-in-law and sent to prison. Archer had previously used a similar plot device in the short story "Trial and Error" (in Twelve Red Herrings).
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: In The Fourth Estate, the main characters — Richard Armstrong and Keith Townsend — are very lightly fictionalised versions of Robert Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch.
- Our Presidents Are Different: In the original version of Shall We Tell the President? (published in 1977), the President of the USA is Ted Kennedy. Following on from the success of Kane and Abel and its sequel The Prodigal Daughter, though, that novel was re-written (and republished in 1986) with Florentyna Kane, a character in those two novels, as the President.
- Pen Name: The first of Archer's prison diaries — his account of his experiences in prison between 2001 and 2003 — was originally published under the name "FF 8282" which was his prisoner number. The fact that he was actually still in prison at the time of publication has a lot to do with this.
- Perspective Flip: He's done this a few times.
- Parts of The Prodigal Daughter are a retelling of Kane and Abel from the perspective of the children of the main protagonists of the latter.
- The plot of The Fourth Estate switches between the perspectives of the two main characters.
- 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 Jesus from the point of view of a Roman boy who turns out to be a young Pontius Pilate.
- He's also co-written a novella called The Gospel of Judas which, as the name suggests, presents the events of Jesus's life from the point of view of Judas Iscariot.
- Present-Day Past: Although published in 2019, Nothing Ventured is set in the early-to-mid 1980s ... and has a character who visits St Petersburg, even though Leningrad did not revert to its original name until 1991.
- Retcon: When it was originally published in 1977, Shall We Tell the President? was about a plot to assassinate Ted Kennedy - who in this novel had managed to become the President of the United States. Following the success of Kane and Abel and its sequel The Prodigal Daughter, Archer rewrote Shall We Tell the President?, replacing Kennedy with the fictional Florentyna Kane (the daughter of one of the protagonists of Kane and Abel who becomes the USA's first female President in The Prodigal Daughter) in order to link this novel with the other two.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Anna Petrescu, the protagonist of False Impression, survives the 9/11 attacks as a result of being fired by her dishonest employer (based at the World Trade Center) shortly before they happen.
- Russia Called; They Want Alaska Back: The plot of A Matter of Honour is built around this trope, the premise being that there's a secret treaty which states that the Alaska Purchase was actually a 99-year lease. As this novel is set in the mid-1960s, the lease is almost up. Naturally, the KGB are very keen to get hold of this document.
- Secret Test: The title character in "Clean Sweep Ignatius" (one of the short stories in A Twist In The Tale) threatens a Swiss bank manager, but is really double-checking their confidentiality.
- Separated at Birth: Happens at the start of Sons of Fortune, and drives much of the plot.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Jack Tarrant, a supporting character in Only Time Will Tell who won the Victoria Cross in the Boer War but bore significant mental scars as a result, eventually finding work as a night watchman in the Barrington shipyard.
- Shoot the Builder: In Honour Among Thieves, the Caper Crew 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. They don't. They also debate killing the alcoholic Master Forger to ensure he doesn't get Loose Lips, but he ends up in custody before they can make a decision.
- Shout-Out: Shall We Tell The President?, which is about an assassination plot, contains several references to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
- Show Within a Show: The Clifton series features a series of novels written by the main character, Harry Clifton. The main character of these novels is a police detective by the name of William Warwick. This got rather meta after Archer finished the Clifton series, and started on a new series of novels ... in which the main character is a police detective by the name of William Warwick!
- Smithical Marriage: A platonic example occurs in Nothing Ventured when two police detectives — a man and a woman — check into a hotel room as "Mr and Mrs Smith" in order to use the room to observe a suspect, whose house is in line of sight from the room's window.
- Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Used a couple of times.
- 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 Harry is in fact the illegitimate son of Emma's father. The wedding goes no further.
- It comes up again when William Warwick marries Beth Rainsford in Hidden in Plain Sight. Determined to ruin William, 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.
- Swapped Roles: Taken to the ultimate extreme in The Eleventh Commandment when CIA assassin Connor Fitzgerald is facing the death penalty in a Moscow prison. A colleague, whose life he saved in Vietnam, smuggles himself into the prison, replaces Connor and is hanged in his place - in effect, a Shout-Out to the climax of A Tale of Two Cities.
- Thrown from the Zeppelin: In Honour Among Thieves, the Mafia gathers several people to recruit them for a Caper Crew to steal the Declaration of Independence. A craftsman named Bruno, who they want to recruit to build a carrying case, feels the potential prison sentence is too great and stalks out. The gangsters don't like the idea of leaving someone who knows the plan but isn't legally implicated in it alive to potentially spill the beans, so Bruno doesn't stay alive much longer.
- Title Drop: Usually at least once per novel. In Honour Among Thieves, for example, Dollar Bill asks what happened to the concept of honour among thieves after finding out that Saddam Hussein was behind the plot to steal the American Declaration of Independence.
- Twist Ending: So very much in the short stories, to the point where one of the collections is actually called A Twist in the Tale. Happens quite a few times in the novels as well.
- Unknown Rival: 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.
