Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer is an English novelist, short-story writer and former politician whose books are known for fast-moving plots, ambitious protagonists, political intrigue and dramatic reversals of fortune. Before becoming a full-time author, he served as a Member of Parliament and later became a life peer. His first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, was followed by international bestsellers including Kane and Abel, The Prodigal Daughter and A Matter of Honour. His experience of politics, business and public life frequently informs his fiction, particularly his depictions of wealth, elections, social advancement, rivalry and personal scandal.

Archer’s historical and multigenerational novels often place fictional families within major political and economic changes. The Clifton Chronicles follows the intertwined Clifton and Barrington families from the years before the Second World War into the late twentieth century, while Kane and Abel traces the parallel lives of two powerful men born in very different circumstances. First Among Equals draws directly on the culture of Westminster politics, following four fictional MPs competing for power. Across his novels, Archer combines historical settings with family secrets, commercial competition, courtroom confrontations and political ambition, using cliff-hangers and intersecting storylines to sustain long family sagas.