Why Jeffrey Archer has no wish to retire from writing

“If this interview isn’t on every front page in the world by next week,” says Jeffrey Archer, “you’re fired!”
Jeffrey Archer has sold more than 300 million books in 40 years.Jeffrey Archer has sold more than 300 million books in 40 years.
Jeffrey Archer has sold more than 300 million books in 40 years.

He’s joking, of course, but if there’s a man used to the front pages, it’s Archer. Bestselling novelist, former Conservative party deputy chairman, peer of the realm, and, famously, convicted perjurer, Archer’s many incarnations have long attracted equal parts admiration and ridicule. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone with more shelf space in Waterstones, or more column inches in Private Eye.

Lee Child: How being sacked from my job turned me into a bestselling crime writerOur interview is scheduled for Archer’s flat – a Westminster penthouse with more art than wall – but a late change of plan sees us meet in the central lobby of the Houses of Parliament instead. “I just had to see the Prime Minister’s speech this afternoon,” he explains, and in the circumstances who can blame him? It’s the first session back after Boris Johnson announced his plan to prorogue Parliament, and the atmosphere is febrile.

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Once I pick him out from among the many grey-haired men in the dimly-lit lobby, we relocate to a cafe in the House of Lords. We’re here to discuss Archer’s newest novel, Nothing Ventured, a spiritual if not direct successor to his bestselling Clifton Chronicles. A rollicking crime caper centring around an art heist, our new hero is William Warwick, a fledgling detective collaring the crooks his barrister father sets free.

The first instalment of a proposed eight-part series, book two has already entered its sixth draft, though Archer generally aims for 14. “That’s how you get the speed,” he says. “It’s about making it faster and faster, making you want to turn the page. How dare you put this book down!”

Archer doesn’t have to write and he’s not overly shy about his successes. “Three-hundred million books sold,” he says. “Kane And Abel was the breakthrough – sold a million in the first week. It’s 40 years old this year, on its 123rd reprint and 32,700,000 copies; 400,000 last year.”

Author Peter Robinson on why DCI Banks is fighting county lines crime in Yorkshire in latest novelArcher has never claimed to be a literary genius. His calling is as a storyteller – a weaver of tall tales and fulsome fictions that have struck a chord with readers. “It’s a God-given gift”, he says. “I’m very lucky. I wanted to captain the England cricket team, I failed. I wanted to be Prime Minister, I failed. So they said, ‘all right, we’ll make you a storyteller’.”

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He releases roughly one book a year, but Archer seems surprised by the suggestion that he’s speedy. “I think I’m very slow,” he says, “but I’m a totally driven, disciplined human being. I rise at 5.30, work six to eight, take a two-hour break, work 10 ’til 12, take a two-hour break, work six ’til eight, and I’m in bed by 9.30.”

When it comes to the ongoing Brexit turmoil, he says he would be “very distressed” if the Prime Minister ignored a law passed by Parliament, as it did shortly after this interview to block a no-deal Brexit from occurring at the end of October. “I would like him to get a deal that reflects the view of the British people – no deal is 100 per cent one way, remaining in Europe is 100 per cent the other. If he could get a Withdrawal Act that reflected 52 to 48 – pretty simple to do – that’s what I would be happy to vote for.”

All Creatures Great and Small star Carol Drinkwater on her new novel The House on the Edge of the CliffArcher has served under two Prime Ministers, but neither were in this millennium, and the 79-year-old admits he’s now “fearful of death”. Blessed with boundless energy for most of his adult life, he’s realistic about the ravages of time. His wife of 53 years, Mary Archer, underwent surgery for bladder cancer in 2011, and her support was instrumental in helping him through prostate cancer a few years later.

Some might describe starting an eight-book series in your late-70s as a bold gambit, but for Archer the activity keeps him going. “You get to a point where you think, ‘I’ve only got a certain amount of time left, wouldn’t I be stupid doing nothing?’”