Archer does it again
Jeffrey Archer was in India on a whirlwind 11-city tour to promote his new ambitious book Only Time Will Tell. IBNS Correspondent Brinda Dasgupta came face to face with the man remains an unparalleled king of fiction.
Salt and pepper hair – check. Mischievous smile – check. Dry, sardonic humour – check. It’s Jeffrey Archer, in the flesh. The man who saved himself from bankruptcy with Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less and became a household name with Kane and Abel, is now out with his self-proclaimed “most ambitious work in decades”. Catching up with this enigmatic author during his whirlwind 11-city tour, and coming face to face with the man was an experience in itself. His questionable personal life notwithstanding, Archer remains an unparalleled king of fiction.
Only Time Will Tell, the first in the series of The Clifton Chronicles, covers the years from 1920 to 1940. Archer welcomes you into the world of Harry Clifton, who is told that his father was killed in the war, but it is another 20 years before he discovers the truth about his parentage. He is not the son of Arthur Clifton, a stevedore who worked in the Bristol docks, as he has been led to believe, but astoundingly, the first-born, albeit illegitimate, son of a scion of West Country society, whose family owns a shipping line. Harry, who grapples with poverty and low self-esteem, is made the butt of ridicule at his school for his low status, but, as the reader learns, there is more to Harry than meets the eye. His friendship with Giles Barrington (who it is later discovered is his half-brother) and his romance with Emma, Giles’ sister and thereby also Harry’s half-sister, has the slightest essence of a Greek tragedy about it.
The coming-of-age novel which can best be classified, in literary terms, as a bildungsroman, follows Harry from childhood to adulthood, traces his friendships and his attachments, his losses and his challenges, and his painful discovery that he has been born the wrong side of the blanket. Beginning just as the First World War has come to a close, the novel ends with the onset of the Second World War, as Britain declares war on Germany.
Part-drama, part-thriller, Only Time Will Tell is almost too good to put down, even if for a break, and like Harry, the reader rushes on, turning pages – hoping for conclusions and closure at the end, only to be met with a last line that is as damning as it is provoking, as suspenseful as it is ominous – and there you have it – you, the reader, have fallen prey to Archer’s master-storytelling once again!
So, the obvious question would be, why this particular novel? Archer says, “Kane and Abel had been an instant success, selling millions of copies worldwide. Three decades hence, I rewrote it to present it anew to today’s generation. After that, I needed a new challenge.” Thus was born the first part of The Clifton Chronicles, which Archer claims is almost semi-autobiographical in nature. The protagonist, Harry, will live for a hundred years, which is exactly how long Archer himself wants to live.
Offering his opinions on everything from the World Cup (“Any team that doesn’t play Rahul Dravid and Ganguly is mad!”) to the transportation system (“People who flout a road rule should have their license taken away, not just fined!”), Archer claims he’s not a ‘writer’, but a ‘storyteller’. “I don’t write about vampires, and I don’t write about wizards!”, he says, taking an unmistakable dig at the Harry Potter and Twilight crazes. He names R K Narayan as his favourite Indian author, and says that maybe, just maybe, there might be an Indian angle to The Clifton Chronicles, with the possibility of Harry visiting India towards the end of the series.
Family drama, bonds of friendship, romance, arson, even incest – Only Time Will Tell has it all, set against the backdrop of a nation that has recovered from one war, only to have to strap on its boots for yet another. Archer moves beyond writing mere fiction to writing a riveting 388-page novel that is peppered with historical facts, interesting tidbits of information and the occasional real-life character.
Considered by many to be an ace at unpredictable endings, Archer says life itself is as unforeseeable as the little twists that he likes to leave readers with. “Often, I don’t know how I’m going to end a book until I’m writing the very last page!”, he laughs. Many may be surprised to know that even he didn’t know how Paths of Glory was going to end until he reached the penultimate page, and interestingly enough, he has no idea about the turns that Harry’s life will have taken by the time the series draws to a close. It is almost amusing that the reader and the writer are, proverbially, both in the same boat!
Archer’s latest work is memorable, taking the reader on a rollercoaster ride through a labyrinth of events, all told by different characters, giving the reader the unique privilege of having multiple perspectives. It is almost unbearable to think that one must wait many more months for the next installment of The Clifton Chronicles.
Having spent time in jail for perjury, Archer’s no stranger to scandal. However, dubious personal life notwithstanding, Archer was definitely the first among equals in India, entertaining and regaling his way through thousands of fans spread over 11 different cities. Wickedly funny and delightfully amusing, Archer has not just turned out a fascinating novel, thankfully promising four more in the same series, but he has also proved that he is indeed a force to be reckoned with!
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