Archer, Jeffrey

(British, 1940– )

Jeffrey Archer was born in Weston-super-Mare. He entered the House of Commons in 1969, later becoming deputy chairman of the Conservative Party; he was obliged to stand down as Tory candidate for Mayor of London when charges of perjury were brought against him. His motivation for writing fiction came from the loss of his fortune through bad investment. His first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1974), is loosely based on this. Archer's characterization is wooden, and his style clumsy; his novels are unapologetic mass-market narrative-driven thrillers, which often borrow real-life political figures for characters. Shall We Tell the President? (1977) is centred on Kennedy, and The Fourth Estate (1996) is about media moguls, based on Murdoch and Maxwell. The Eleventh Commandment (1998) concerns a CIA agent who is pitched against his female boss.

Michael Dobbs, Robert Goddard, Arthur Hailey  SA