An Evening with Jeffrey Archer

It’s not often that life throws at you an opportunity to meet the author whom you admire, the ones that feature somewhere in your favourite lists, the ones that fill you with joy and ecstasy whenever you happen to peruse through their works. And when you do, and if you do, you grab it at first chance, and you feel privileged and amazed to be in his presence. That’s exactly what happened, when I met Jeffrey Archer last evening at the promotional launch of his latest offering “Best Kept Secret”, the third instalment in the Clifton Chronicles which he started 2 years ago. The event was hosted at the Landmark Book store in Nungambakkam, Chennai, and was part of a 4 city India tour.

Lord Jeffrey Archer speaking at the event

There were a couple of anxious moments as the gathering of 500-odd, waited with bated breath for the man of the moment. Soon as the clock struck 7, Lord Jeffrey Archer was ushered in by the book-store’s manager. Everyone stood up and broke into a thunderous applause to welcome him. On reaching the podium, Jeffrey Archer motioned the audience to take their sits with a surprised look on his face that almost reminded me of Rowan Atkinson, much to the utter delight of the gathering!

Once he got the mike in his hands, he started off in a sarcastic note. He drew the crowd’s attention to the fact the England Cricket Team had in the recent past thrashed the Indian Cricket Team down to the ground and that, it gave him immense pleasure when the Indian Cricket Team have, so far, meted out the same treatment to their traditional rivals- the Aussies, in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Test Series. The crowd ruptured with laughter! And that set the tone for the rest of the evening, for that was just the beginning of an evening filled with wisecracks and witty remarks amid serious talks on writers and the bumpy road of writing as a  career option where success seems sparse.

At the very beginning, he began by asking the audience to read a 100-word short story that was displayed in the flat panels installed at the scene. He then proceeded to explaining the audience that this was written sometime back at the behest of Reader’s Digest, a publishing house who challenged him to write precisely a 100-word story with a beginning, a middle and an end. In his first draft, he recollects, he had managed to write it in 130+ words. In subsequent drafts, he managed to contain it to 98 words, but this felt short 0f the mark by 2 words. At this point he sent the audience on a word-hunt by asking them to find those 2 words. After a flurry of responses, one woman finally got it right when she pointed out the words “he said”, appended at the last sentence. 

His intentions behind this exercise got clearer when he went on to elaborate about a short-story writing contest that was aimed at providing a platform to all those budding writers who have always wanted to get published but haven’t found any means to do so. In turns, he asked those among the audience who wanted to be a writer to raise their hands, then the ones who had written and finally those that had been published. On the first two occasions, he was astonished to see so many hands in the air and even on the last occasion, there were quite a few hands, but mostly scarce. However, Jeffrey was delighted to find those few as he gently admits later that writing, as a career, is very challenging. He supports his view by recounting his own experience as a writer. At the beginning of his career, his first book sold for 3,000 copies in the UK. His second book sold for 7,000 copies. His third, that was Kane & Abel, sold a million copies and now it is in its 93^rd reprint. At this instance, thunderous applause echoed off the walls with a few hoots! When the applause died down, Jeffrey continued, in his inimitable style, to inspire the audience to write, notwithstanding the umpteen hardships. He mentioned that the other day when he was in Bengaluru, the average age of the audience was 17 years which he found queer considering the fact that for a similar event in the UK, the mark would be in the 40s or 50s. This showed that there is a readership growth in India. He revealed stats that a copy of his books is read by 2 people in the UK and the US on an average, but for India it is 20! And then, with an animated expression of a frustrated man on his face, he said “But this isn't reflecting in my bank-balances!” At this instance, the crowd nearly split their sides with laughter. When silence was restored, Lord Jeffrey goes on to explain why, despite the fact that India having one of the largest readership, generates very poor revenue. The reason behind, he says, is piracy and the wide-spread culture of book lending to friends and family. He says that he has no problems with the second point but what troubles him is the rampant piracy prevalent in the country that affects book sales. He supplements this point by sharing with the audience an interesting as well humorous real-life experience which he had a couple of years back when he was in Mumbai. He was on his way from the Airport to his hotel on a chartered taxi. At one of the traffic signals during the journey, the car came to a halt. At this point, a young lad barely in his teens came near Jeffrey’s window and knocked on the glass. The boy carried a pile of pirated books in his hands, a ubiquitous scene in Mumbai’s traffic stops. Jeffrey then, rolled down the glass window. The boy asked, “Would you like the latest Jeffrey Archer?” Jeffrey could see one his latest book at the top of the pile, bearing a dishevelled resemblance to the real copy. He was aghast, with a look of horror on his face. He then replied, with a hint of offence in his tone, “Well, I'm the latest Jeffrey Archer! “ The crowd, once again erupted into a fit of laughter. The incident validates his point that this is true for the rest of India as well. Piracy has to be stopped if writing was to become a viable career option for today’s youth.

After that, the Q & A session started with questions fielded by both the media personalities present and the large audience. There were a few interesting ones, like the one that what makes him going on writing even at his ripe age to which he replied, that he believes, he is a good story-teller than a writer. And that was a God-given gift for which he was grateful. He then, recounts that when he first took the assignment of Clifton Chronicles at the age of 70, he was quite apprehensive. When he wrote the first draft, he feared that he wouldn’t go past first 2 in the series and the project would be shelved for lack of response. But he was delighted to be proven wrong by his readers and he thanked them for appreciating his work. A lady, then congratulated him and his family for the birth of grandson and she went on to ask him whether he planned to write a collection of short-stories for children now that he was a grandpa. Lord Jeffrey replied with an emphatic “No!” almost as he was offended, much to the amusement of the audience. He then, revealed that he had always wanted a daughter and a grand-daughter but instead, he got a son and a grand-son. The strong presence of women in the gathering, that outnumbered men, were visibly delighted. He also voiced his strong support for women empowerment for which he is well-known. He then, goes on to say that he would continue to write for adults. Then, there was also this question about whether he planned to write about India to which he humbly, replied that he loved India and has come here many a times. However, there were too many religions, diversities existing within India and it would be wrong, on his part, to attempt writing anything about India without knowing her completely, as he would run the risk of hurting people’s sentiments. He elucidates, how his present novel characters and setting are based on people and places he has visited. Harry, the protagonist, is a reflection of his self, Emma is based on his wife whereas Maisie, Harry’s mother in the novel, is based on Jeffrey’s real-life mother who took her degree at a mature age of 53 years just as in the novel.


During the event Jeffrey also apologised for his erroneous declaration at the start of the Clifton Chronicles that this was going to be a 5-part series covering 100 years. But since at the end of the 4^th book, the first draft of which has been completed, Harry is only 44, Jeffrey in an exclusive revelation to the Chennai audience, declared that the series would, now probably, become a 7-part series, which was greeted with a round of applause from those gathered.

Me in the process of getting his signature on my copy

At last, the event concluded with the book signing event which immediately turned into a chaos as everyone pushed to get into the queue. I considered myself lucky to have come early for the front row seats. And finally, after a few minutes, I was in front of Lord Archer, getting his autograph on my copy of “Best Kept Secret”. I greeted him with a “Good Evening, Sir” to which he acknowledged gracefully by following suit. I engaged him in a short conversation and he replied with a smile on his face.  It was one of those memorable experiences that you will carry on in your life and you will cherish it long after he has gone, even in your later years. It was an awesome experience for me and  my friend, Rathin Dutta, who agreed to accompany me!