In India, as part of a five-country tour to promote his latest book Only Time Will Tell, Jeffrey Archer straddles time zones and cultures with aplomb. The bestselling author who champions the underdog in his work speaks to Dhanya Nair Sankar about challenges, rewards, regrets and the joys of imperfection

 
First things first: Lord Jeffrey Archer does not like to be addressed as Lord. Second, it is very difficult to get his attention when a cricket match is on. If you manage to do so, you are seriously lucky. Archer is in Bengaluru, a pit stop on his five-country, 16-city tour to promote his latest book, Only Time Will Tell. Defying time zones seems to come as easily as writing popular fiction to the Briton, who is more prolific than ever before. With nary a trace of jet lag or exhaustion, he seems overdosed on energy, buoyed by the launch of his new book, the first instalment of a five-part epic.

Walking towards Villa 1516 at Taj West End in Bengaluru, you hear guffaws and incessant cricket commentary. Archer’s baritone is engaged in friendly repartee with the bellboys, his publicist and PR people, and the scribes thronging to get a slice of his time. He spots me lurking at the door, too intimidated to come inside; he comes outside and welcomes me as if we are long-lost friends. Inside, the lights are dim but Archer’s vivacity brightens the room. At 70, there is not a trace of age—in his physical demeanour or spirit. Later, he is equally ebullient at a reader interaction in a city bookstore as he works the overcapacity crowd. Following a friendly war of words with a young girl, he sounds a warning to Indian men to get ready to play second fiddle to the women of the country. “Dear Indian men,” he roars, “You are really done here!”

Entertaining an audience has always come easy to Archer. Beginning with his first book, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, a semi-autobiographical caper published in 1975, he has dominated the bestseller charts with a series of novels, short stories, plays and even children’s books, not to mention his own diaries of his days in prison, where he served a sentence for perjury. Indeed, his own life has been as colourful as those of his characters. A Member of Parliament at the age of 29 (the youngest ever at the time), a poor investment led him to the brink of bankruptcy; he wrote his first book to put himself back in the black. He has continued to land on his feet from every adversity (political, personal, financial), using his words to keep him on top of the game. “I am flawed to the core,” he admits, adding that it makes him “interesting”. It’s just one of the many insights into the prolific author in an exclusive conversation.

IN HIS OWN WORDS:

India with all its paradoxes is a fascinating country. I certainly feel loved here and look forward to coming back. But sometimes that love comes with a price. I was in Chennai having dinner in my hotel when a man came up to me and sked, ‘Are you Jeffrey Archer?’ Like a dimwit, I said ‘Yes’ and, next thing, he was there with his whole family. I had to say goodbye to having a silent dinner. Once, I was driving through a busy junction in Kolkata. A little lad came up to my car and asked, ‘Sir, do you want the latest Jeffrey Archer?’ I was bemused; I blinked and replied, ‘My dear boy, I am the latest Jeffrey Archer!’ My journey to India is filled with such amusing experiences. India for me is like the many underdog characters I etch; despite so many odds it has shown to the world that you simply cannot ignore this growing, vibrant country. And that’s endearing. The adulation I get here only motivates me to write better.

All said and done, though, I can never write an Indian story. I couldn’t do it simply because to spin a story about a country you need to be attuned to the culture, character and psyche of the place and the people. Though I have done a short story based in India in my last book, And Thereby Hangs a Tale, I cannot write a full-length novel as I wouldn’t be able to do justice to it. I write about politics and big businesses because that’s a world I’m aware of. And India as a country puzzles me to no extent. The other day a friend of mine was explaining the concept of arranged marriages over dinner. It completely baffled me and I kept asking him questions; the dinner went on for two hours or so after which I was still unclear about the subject. To be able to tell a story confidently you cannot ignore the finer nuances of culture.

My newest book is the biggest challenge of my career. Only Time Will Tell is the first of a five-part epic, ‘The Clifton Chronicles’, and writing an epic is a humungous task. For the next five years I will only concentrate on this challenge. I started writing the second part of the series this January and it is based on the Second World War. It is certainly difficult to write fiction based on major historical events, as you have to be very accurate with the research; otherwise, readers will not accept it and they will write back to you. That’s not the response I want. But it is also fun to mingle your characters into real events. Before starting each book I spend one year researching the period. So the past year, I was busy reading books on the War and watching movies. I keep a keen eye on how the people dressed, spoke, lived, etc. Though there is some idea in my mind on how the plot will shape up, I can never decide how the story will end; it’s only when you start writing that ideas shape up better. For instance, I had no idea how Harry [the protagonist of the book] will get out of the problem in the end.

Most of my characters are underdogs and that’s for a good reason. I think people are fascinated by people coming from nothing and achieving something. They probably see themselves in such people because they also want to achieve something. Some of my characters are stamped in my mind forever. I really loved Miss Tredgold from The Prodigal Daughter; she was supposed to be there for only a few pages but ended up throughout the book. I also love Old Jack Tar’s character from the new book; he is a very sensitive, endearing grandfather figure. Yes, I am fascinated by the underdog.

Though Kane and Abel was very well received worldwide, my favourite remains my first book. To this day, I am sentimental about Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less. It was a semi-autobiographical work that came at a time when I was going through a bad phase. But the idea of coming up with my first novel at the age of 34 was a thrilling prospect. As a writer, you are bound to take inferences from your own life and though it can be very vulnerable to put oneself out there, it can also be liberating. I started my writing career with that book, so obviously it remains close to my heart.

Each kind of writing requires a different craft. I have written novels, short stories and plays. Each requires a different kind of technique; it is a challenge to keep changing your writing style every now and then. I love writing short stories simply because it requires a lot of bite and humour. Writing humour certainly is a definitive test of my skills as a storyteller. But I also love writing and even reading the great novels; there is a lot of research and reading up required that I enjoy.

Writing the biography of [English mountaineer] George Mallory in Paths of Glory was a thrilling experience. When I first came to known about Mallory through a friend, I was convinced I had to write about him. Here was a ‘real’ hero who came from nothing and reached such staggering heights, literally and figuratively. While it is a tale about the triumph of human perseverance, at the heart is a love story of a woman who stood by her man no matter what the odds were, not ever getting discouraged about her husband’s long absences. It also remains close to my heart because it is my first book to be critically acclaimed. But the real compliment came from Mallory’s son. After reading the love letter between the man and the wife, he told me, “I wish my father had really written those letters.”

Many people are baffled by the amount of work I put in. To this day and despite writing many books, my daily schedule remains unchanged. I get up at 5:30 in the morning. Start writing from 6 to 8 am, take a two-hour break, start again at 10 am till 12 pm, take another break, start writing from 2 pm to 4 pm, take another break, and write again from 6 pm to 8 pm. By 9:30 pm I am back to bed. I put in around 500 hours for the first draft; by the time the final draft comes out I would have put in 1,000 hours on the same piece. To achieve success in any art, one needs to practise endlessly, it is that simple. Now arguably Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest batsman the world has ever seen but even he practises religiously. Talent is good, it is useful; but talent without energy is useless.

I still write with pen and paper in my back garden. Not many people know this but I cannot even switch on a computer so I prefer the traditional style of writing with pen and paper—I feel it is romantic. But I am embracing new technology. I have a blog and I am even on Facebook and Twitter. I regularly update my blog with the help of my secretary to whom I dictate; she types and I edit. When I am too busy my sons look after my blog. All my serious writing is still restricted to my books. But I have promised myself to learn how to operate the computer.

Mark Twain was right when he said, ‘A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.’ I never fret about the fact that I am called a popular writer and not a critically acclaimed one. Readers want to be entertained first and foremost and some of the classics don’t do that to you. I mean I myself have never come to the end of Ulysses. I also feel there is a big difference between good writers and good storytellers. Good writing is something you can develop over a period of time with proper education but storytelling is God’s gift—I’m happy to have the latter. I don’t even want to defend my place as a good storyteller. I mean if you have sold more than 250 million copies of your book, why would you need to? That said, I am very happy to be ‘critically acclaimed’ for Paths of Glory and the fact that the Daily Mail has called Kane and Abel a modern classic.

Shakespeare, a classical writer, remains my favourite. I love storytellers and he was the greatest of them all. Even now when you read Romeo and Juliet you are gripped by an excitement to know how the story ends. I also like storytellers like F Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck and even Charles Dickens. Some of my favourite books include Fitzgerald’s A Diamond as Big as the Ritz; A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens; Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck; to name a few. Among short story writers I love O Henry and Maupassant. India has given to the world some wonderful writers like V S Naipaul and Salman Rushdie but my favourite is R K Narayan. Not only was he a good writer but a great storyteller. His stories keep you at the edge of your seat. I love the man and have great respect for his craft.

My biggest achievement as a writer was winning a literary award in France. French people are not known to give awards to an Englishman! So my biggest achievement was winning the Prix Polar International Award in France in 2009 for my book A Prisoner of Birth.

Ageing has certainly made me a better storyteller. I have always stood up for the rights of the elderly. In fact in 1993, I had started a movement called ‘Stand Up and Deliver’, urging then home secretary Michael Howard to look after the burgeoning elderly population of my home country. With age I have only become all the more sensitive to aged people. But ageing is something I don’t dread because it has only made me a better craftsman.

My family is my strength. I have been married to a remarkable, independent woman, Mary Archer, for over 40 years. Not only is she a beauty but the cleverest woman from her generation. She is really the pillar of my strength. She is her own person; she is a doctor and chairman of the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. I also have two sons, William and James.

I have one big regret in life. I don’t have any daughters. I love girls and at one point wanted as many as six daughters. I think daughters just make a father a better man in all spheres of life.

I am flawed to the core. I once said that the genius of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was that he was a flawed man; a great man but a flawed man. I certainly see myself as a flawed man. All of us are—I am flawed and you are flawed. But not many of us are seen regularly in the public eye so we are lucky as our flaws are not noticed. I have never met a perfect person, but I feel the perfect person would be a rather boring one; after all, imperfections are endearing. I would rather be flawed and interesting than perfect and boring.

I will never write an autobiography. Simply because I don’t think I am interesting or important enough to write one.

The first instalment of Jeffrey Archer’s five-part epic, ONLY TIME WILL TELL (Pan Macmillan; ₹ 325, 388 pages) is a gripping drama about two families, the Cliftons and Barringtons, and a portrait of a nation in churn. In this sweeping saga, Archer’s protagonist Harry Clifton is—unsurprisingly—the quintessential underdog who rises to meet every challenge life, and his nemesis Hugo Barrington, throws his way. Harry’s weapons: determination, perseverance, and a devoted mother. Memorable supporting characters like Old Jack Tar and Harry’s best friend Giles Barrington add zest to this simply written, yet enormously engrossing and entertaining tale. Archer devotees will remember Kane and Abel with nostalgia. And wait with bated breath for the next instalment.

—Dhanya Nair Sankar

CONTROVERSY’S CHILD

1967 The United Nations Association, for which Archer worked, alleged discrepancies in his expense claims. Archer filed a defamation case which was settled out of court.

1974 He lost a huge fortune in a fraudulent investment scheme. Fearing bankruptcy, he stood down as MP in the general elections that year.

1987 British tabloid Daily Star released a story alleging Archer had paid sex with Monica Coughlan, a commercial sex worker. He won the case after he proved that he had dispensed the money as philanthropy than for any services rendered.

1994 Archer ruffled more than a few feathers when he stated that 18 should be the age of consent for homosexuality as against 21 at that time. In the same year, he was harrassed by rumours of insider trading (for shares bought in Anglia Television where his wife Mary Archer was director.

1999 His personal assistant Angela Peppiatt provided evidence that Archer had committed perjury by fabricating an alibi in the 1987 libel trial. In 2001 Archer was sentenced to four years imprisonment.

2001 Scotland Yard started investigations into the allegations that millions of pounds had disappeared from Archer’s Kurdish charity.

2004 Archer was accused of being one of the financiers who funded the coup attempt against the government of Equatorial Guinea.

Featured in Harmony – Celebrate Age Magazine
May 2011