Background

Jeffrey Howard Archer was born on April 15, 1940, in London, United Kingdom, the son of William and Lola (nee Cook) Archer.

Education

In 1951, Archer won a scholarship to Wellington School in Somerset, not to the more prestigious Wellington College in Berkshire, as he was later inclined to claim. Later he gained admittance to Brasenose College, Oxford, to pursue a graduate diploma in education. He enrolled at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education where he earned a diploma in teaching.

Career

After leaving Oxford University, Archer worked part-time as a charity fundraiser for Oxfam and was eyed with suspicion by other students for owning a house and personalized number plated cars by working part-time. Archer continued fundraising after leaving Oxford and also started becoming active in politics becoming a Conservative Councilor on the Greater London Council in 1967. When he worked for the United Nations Association, he was alleged for divergences in his claims for expenses. In 1969, Archer started his own fund-raising company, Arrow Enterprises and an art gallery he sold two years later due to losses.

In 1974, a business deal with a Canadian company left him to near bankruptcy and forced him to stand down as MP - he had become a Tory at the age of 29. That experience inspired his first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less in 1975. In 1979 he hit the jackpot with his third book, Kane and Abel. It turned him into a household name. Being a success, an adaptation of the book was aired by BBC radio in the early 1980s and BBC television in 1990. The Kane and Able series is Archer’s best-known work. It secured the number one position on The New York Times bestsellers list and was also made into a mini television serial. Another one of Archer’s bestseller to be seen on television is First Among Equals. An author to a couple of plays and more than 25 books for adults and children, Archer’s latest novel, Only Time Will Tell (2011) is the beginning of a new series titled, The Clifton Chronicles.

Famous not only for his literary contributions, Archer has also been the center of attention for quite some time due to his scandalous life. After being appointed the Deputy Chairman of the Conservative party in 1985, Archer was forced to resign a year later after being reported on having to pay a prostitute for sexual services. However, Archer won the case named, libel trial, after suing and was presented £500,000 in damages. He was arrested in 2000 after a trial that found him guilty of persuading a friend to lie in court in the 1987 libel trial. After being imprisoned for four years, Archer was released on July 21, 2003. He wrote A Prison Diary, a three volumes long memoir during his days in prison.

His novel, Sons of Fortune, was published in December 2002, and his 12th, False Impression, in March 2006. A Prisoner of Birth was published in March 2008 and topped the bestseller lists around the world, going to No.1 in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India. It spent four weeks in the top 10 on The New York Times Bestseller list. Jeffrey’s novel, Paths of Glory, was published by Macmillan in March 2009 and went to No. 1 around the world.

Jeffrey is also a playwright, and after the General Election in 1987, he wrote his first play Beyond Reasonable Doubt, which ran at the Queen’s Theatre in London’s West End for over 600 performances, and starred Frank Finlay and Wendy Craig. His second play, Exclusive, ran at the Strand Theatre for 100 performances and starred Paul Scofield, Eileen Atkins, and Alec McCowen. His most recent play, The Accused, published by Methuen in October 2000, starred Edward Petherbridge, Michael Feast and Tony Britton, and is a courtroom drama with a twist; the audience acts as the jury, and decide which of two different endings the play should have – guilty or innocent. Jeffrey took on his first West End role, playing the part of the accused. The play completed a very successful nine-week regional tour, before playing at the Theatre Royal Haymarket for a limited eight-week run.

Having run a successful campaign for Mayor of London for two-and-a-half years, from 1997, Jeffrey Archer was selected as the official Conservative Party Candidate for London’s Mayor in October 1999 by an overwhelming majority. In November that same year, he withdrew his candidacy, having been charged with perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment and was released in July 2003, having served two years.

Jeffrey Archer has published three volumes of his Prison Diary; Volume I, Hell, a searing account of his first three weeks in the high security prison, HMP Belmarsh; Volume II, Purgatory, set in HMP Wayland, a C category prison; and the third and final volume, Heaven, about his final transfer to an open prison.

At the age of 70, Jeffrey undertook the challenge of writing a seven-book saga called The Clifton Chronicles. Book one, Only Time Will Tell, published in 2011, topped the charts around the world, spending 12 weeks at No.1 in India. Books two, The Sins of the Father was published in March 2012, three, Best Kept Secret published in March 2013, four, Be Careful What You Wish For, published in March 2014, five, Mightier Than The Sword, published in March 2015, all went to #1 on the Sunday Times Best Seller list, and to #1 in Australia, India, and South Africa. Book six in the series, Cometh The Hour, also went to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller lists in hardback, e-book and the combined list. The final book in the series, This Was a Man, was published in hardback in November 2016, and again went to #1 around the world. Since then, he has written his 22nd novel, Heads You Win, and is now working on Nothing Ventured, the first of a new series featuring Detective William Warwick, which will be published in September 2019.

Jeffrey completed the Flora London Marathon on April 18th, 2004, in 5 hours 26 mins, raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation UK, the British Heart Foundation, the Fund for Addenbrooke’s and the Facial Surgery Research Foundation. Jeffrey has also written an original screenplay about George Mallory, called Paths of Glory, and has also completed the screenplay to his novel, False Impression.

Jeffrey Archer still remains a much talked about a public figure, be it for his books or scandals.

Achievements

• 

  Jeffrey Archer is the prolific writer, whose hits include Kane and Abel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less and The Clifton Chronicles. He published his first novel Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, a critically acclaimed novel that was turned into a TV series and reprinted 57 times, his books are still as popular. The former politician has sold over 300 million copies of his novels and short stories worldwide and won a number of literary prizes.
  
  Archer has achieved mega-stardom around the world, with his books performing extremely well globally. He is the only author ever to have been a number one bestseller in fiction (nineteen times), short stories (four times) and non-fiction (The Prison Diaries).
  
  In 2017 Jeffrey Archer is delighted to be awarded a Golden Pan at Foyles, one of the industry's very first author awards, for sales of more than one million copies of Only Time Will Tell.

Works

More photos

• book

  • False Impression

    (Why was an elegant lady brutally murdered the night befor...)

    2005
  • Tell Tale

    (Find out what happens to the hapless young detective from...)

    2017
  • Kane and Abel

    (William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski, one the son of a ...)

    1979
  • The Luck of the Irish

    (Liam Casey is an enterprising young estate agent from Cor...)

    2018
  • The Sins of the Father

    (Only days before Britain declares war on Germany, Harry C...)

    2012
  • Mightier Than the Sword

    (When Harry Clifton visits his publisher in New York, he l...)

    2015
  • Nothing Ventured

    (William Warwick has always wanted to be a detective, and ...)

    2019
  • A Prison Diary

    (Prisoner FF8282, as Archer is now known, spent the first ...)

    2004
  • A Wasted Hour

    (Kelley, a Stanford College student, and an aspiring write...)

    2017
  • Only Time Will Tell

    (A dock worker in Bristol, Harry never knew his father, bu...)

    2011
  • A Prisoner of Birth

    (If Danny Cartwright had proposed to Beth Wilson the day b...)

    2008
  • Twelve Red Herrings

    (Cleverly styled, with richly drawn characters and ingenio...)

    1994
  • The Russian Assassin

    (Former KGB assassin Max Austin's peaceful life in Paris i...)

    2016
  • First Among Equals

    (Charles Seymour, second-born son, will never be the earl ...)

    1984
  • The Fourth Estate

    (Richard Armstrong narrowly escaped Hitler's atrocities in...)

    1996
  • Honor Among Thieves

    (While the Clinton Administration grapples with its domest...)

    2004
  • One Man's Meat

    (When Michael Whitaker spots the stunning Anna Townsend on...)

    2011
  • Caste-Off

    (Jamwal Rameshwar Singh, a hedonistic playboy prince, assu...)

    2018
  • Other Blighters' Efforts

    (Henry Pascoe, the First Secretary at the British High Com...)

    2018
  • Shall We Tell the President?

    (After years of great sacrifice and deep personal tragedy,...)

    1986
  • As the Crow Flies

    (Growing up in the slums of East End London, Charlie Trump...)

    1991
  • Cometh the Hour

    (Giles must decide if he should withdraw from politics and...)

    2016
  • Too Many Coincidences

    (For Ruth Anderson continuing her whirlwind love affair wi...)

    2018
  • Be Careful What You Wish For

    (When Ross Buchanan is forced to resign as chairman of the...)

    2014
  • Heads You Win

    (Leningrad, Russia, 1968: From an early age it is clear th...)

    2018
  • Don't Drink the Water

    (Richard Barnsley is in St Petersburg to close a pipeline ...)

    2018
  • Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less

    (The conned: an Oxford don, a revered society physician, a...)

  • This Was a Man

    (Harry Clifton’s story began in 1920, as a dock worker in ...)

    2016
  • Best Kept Secret

    (The vote in the House of Lords as to who should inherit t...)

    2013
  • Sons of Fortune

    (In Hartford, Connecticut, in the late 1940s, a set of twi...)

    2002
  • The Prodigal Daughter

    (With a will of steel, Polish immigrant Florentyna Rosnovs...)

    1982
  • A Matter of Honor

    (A disgraced British colonel bequeaths a mysterious letter...)

    2004
  • Kane and Abel/Sons of Fortune

    (In the hushed maternity ward, an infant dies, while twin ...)

    2006
  • Paths of Glory

    (Mallory once told an American reporter that he wanted to ...)

    2009
  • The Eleventh Commandment

    (Military hero. Devoted family man. Servant of his country...)

    1998
  • The Man Who Robbed His Own Post Office

    (Mr. and Mrs. Haskins are upstanding members of a seaside ...)

    2018

Religion

In his religious affiliation, Archer is a Roman Catholic.

Politics

After Archer became a member of the Conservative Party, he charmed everyone from Margaret Thatcher to potential political donors, and in 1985 was appointed deputy chairman of the party, a non-paid but highly prestigious post. However, his political career was placed in jeopardy, when in October 1986 a United Kingdom tabloid printed a story about him reportedly paying a prostitute to leave the country after he had allegedly been caught enjoying her services. Although he won the libel suit against the papers and emerged unscathed, he resigned from his position as deputy chairman citing "lack of judgment". He then launched himself into charity work and was later given a peerage by then Prime Minister John Major for fundraising efforts he initiated to help the Kurds following the Gulf War.

In 1999 Lord Jeffrey Archer was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the London Mayoral Election, however claims by the News of the World that Archer had committed perjury during a libel case in 1987 caused Lord Archer to withdraw his candidacy. Such allegations proved the final straw for the Conservative Party and in February 2000 Lord Jeffrey Archer was expelled from the party by leader William Hague. Archer has continued to work as a politics speaker despite this fact however, not only campaigning but also offering insights into the inner workings of government. His political career, having suffered several controversies, ended after a conviction for perverting the course of justice and his subsequent imprisonment. He was imprisoned (2001–2003) for perjury and perverting the course of justice, ending his elected political career.

Today, the ex-Conservative vice-chair and potential Tory candidate for Mayor of London until jail and disgrace, Archer rarely attends the Lords. On 26 February 2006, on Andrew Marr's Sunday AM program, Archer said he had no interest in returning to front-line politics and would pursue his writing instead.

Views

A master storyteller and book writing machine, Archer, who believes that “any novel can be summed up in three sentences.” Despite his self-confidence as a storyteller and more than 150 books to his name, Archer still writes up a few drafts of his books. He is rigidly disciplined. Talking about his famed writing regimen, Archer says he writes for eight hours every day, in two-hour stretches. “I start at 6 to 8 a.m., then have breakfast, get back to work at 10 until midday, when I go for a walk and then have a light lunch. I write again from 2 until 4 p.m., then break and take another walk when I might think through the next chapter. I watch a bit of TV, perhaps catch up on a cricket match.” “My final session is 6 until 8 p.m., after which I have dinner and then relax with a film or a couple of episodes of a gripping drama series,” he says.

And he still uses Staedler pencils and notebooks. “I hand-write my first draft in pen, and I use an HB pencil on a typed manuscript for further drafts.”

Being a successful novelist means he spends quite a bit of his time on book tours, at literature festivals and talking to large audiences about his inspiration and work process. These times are often the only chance for Archer to spend time with the actual people who read his books.

Quotations: "I was allowed to ring the bell for five minutes until everyone was in assembly. It was the beginning of power."

"I'm what you might call centre-right but I've always disliked the right wing as much as I've disliked the left wing."

“You only get one life and those of my friends who’ve shot off to strange places.”

"What I have found is that real friends stand by you. Very few people deserted me when I went to prison. They stayed loyal."

“It’s impossible to be considered a good writer if you’re a storyteller,” he says. “I’m lucky to be a storyteller because they do survive longer than many established writers. For example, people are still reading Dumas, Dickens and Jane Austen, whereas there are several Nobel Prize winners who are out of print.”

“I consider myself very lucky to have been born with a talent for storytelling, but of course that is not enough alone. If you’re not willing to be dedicated and disciplined about the hours you work, you can’t hope for success."

“I’ve won two major prizes in France and I’ve won a major prize in the US, but I have never won anything in Britain. Are you asking: ‘because you’ve never won anything in Britain is that sad?’ Yes. I am touched that the Americans and the French acknowledge me as a writer, but the British have a tendency to put me in the category of storyteller and dismiss the fact that you might be a writer as well. That’s fine."

“I don’t write about sex or violence. I believe if you give the readers a simple story they will read it.”

Membership

Archer is a member of the Make-A-Wish Foundation UK, the British Heart Foundation, the Fund for Addenbrooke’s, and the Facial Surgery Research Foundation.

Personality

Jeffrey Archer is frightfully proud of his collection of paintings (visitors looking for the lavatory at the London flat are told to “turn right at the Picasso and it’s past the Monet”) so he was in his element as he opened the International Art Fair in Kensington. He stated himself: “My love of art is close to being manic,” the perjury-prone politician informed his audience. “My first painting cost £25, leaving us only £35 in the bank; so now I never tell my wife what I spend on art.”

As an amateur auctioneer, Archer often appears as a separate charity sales at which he offers collectibles, and works from his personal collection along with pieces donated by public figures.

Physical Characteristics: Despite being dubbed "the Pune," in reference to his skin-and-bones appearance, the young Jeffrey became a star athlete and eventually reached the national school's championship for the track. Archer was a successful athlete during his years at Oxford where he competed in sprinting and hurdling.

Archer has survived prostate cancer in recent years. For most men in their 70s this would be a chance to slow down, but not for Archer. He over 75 years old, his face is lined and he has come through prostate cancer, but he’s still keeping fit. “I train three days a week in the gym, and have an outstanding New Zealand trainer who pushes me as far as she can, and I certainly benefit from it.”

Interests

• art

• Writers

  Charles Dickens, Scott Fitzgerald, William Shakespeare, Alexandre Dumas

• Sport & Clubs

  sprinting, hurdling, cricket

Connections

In 1966 Jeffrey Howard Archer was married to Mary Doreen Weeden. He met her at Oxford University, where he had been studying for a Diploma in Education. They have two children: William Archer (born 1972), a theatre producer, and James Archer (born 1974), a financial advisor and businessman.

Father:

William Archer

His father, William (died 1956), was 64 years old when Jeffrey Archer was born. Early in his career, Archer gave conflicting accounts to the press of his father's supposed, but non-existent, military career. William Archer was, in fact, a bigamist, fraudster, and conman, who impersonated another William Archer, a deceased war medal holder. He was at different times employed as a chewing gum salesman in New York and a mortgage broker in London. In the latter capacity, he was charged at the Old Bailey for a series of fraud offenses. On being allowed bail, he absconded to America under the name William Grimwood.

Mother:

Lola Archer

Wife:

Mary Doreen Weeden

Dame Mary Doreen Archer (née Weeden; born 22 December 1944), commonly known as Mary Archer, is a British scientist specialising in solar power conversion.

Son:

William Archer

Son:

James Archer

Friend:

Donald Alfred Sinden

Whilst in prison Archer continued to write both fiction and non-fiction books and was notably visited by a number of his high profile friends including Donald Sinden and performer Barry Humphries (better known as Dame Edna Everage).

Friend:

John Barry Humphries

Friend:

John Major

References

• Author Jeffery Archer's Official Website