Sadness at unexpected death of best-selling novelist and former Lincolnshire MP Jeffrey Archer

                                     

Jeffrey Archer - politician turned best-selling novelist who aspired to be Prime Minister or captain of England cricket team

There is shock and sadness today at the unexpected death yesterday at his home in Cambridge of Jeffrey Archer - one of the most colourful political and literary figures of the past half-a-century. Although he had reached the advanced age of  86, he was one of those characters that you half expect to live for ever. There will still be many local people who will remember when, between 1969 and 1974, he was Conservative MP for Louth at a time when the constituency also embraced Cleethorpes and Immingham. Lord Archer was also a vigorous fund-raiser for several charities including the RNLI.  Earlier this year he completed what he claims to be his "most satisfying" novel, Adam and Eve, which is published today by Harper Collins.  He had been looking forward to publicising it with a weekend engagement at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. In an open letter to potential readers, this is what he wrote:

After 50 years of storytelling, I have decided the time has come to write my final novel.

I first had the idea for Adam and Eve when reading a speech Adolf Hitler made in 1940 that caused Winston Churchill to respond in kind in the House of Commons later that year.

Churchill’s words inspired me to read several more speeches by both war leaders while at the same time seeking advice from two eminent historians, even before picking up my pen to write Adam and Eve.

The idea itself was simple enough: if Hitler had not changed his mind, three times, on 15 September 1940, concerning Operation Seelöwe, could the Second World War have ended within days, and which side would have been the victor? 

If Hitler had stuck to his original plan, would history have taken a different course?

But, as a writer, how do you tackle such a momentous challenge? 

I decided to tell the story through the eyes of two young people who came from totally different backgrounds. 

One was the daughter of an Earl, the other was the son of a shepherd, but they had one thing in common: they were both born on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, when the First World War ended.

You can follow their lives, from their birth on that day, to September 15, 1940, when they caused Hitler once again to change his mind.

This not only changed their lives, but possibly all of our lives.

I have pent many happy hours over the past 50 years since writing Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less in 1976, Kane and Abel in 1979  and more recently, from 2018, The William Warwick series.

However, Adam and Eve has now proved to be my most satisfying writing endeavour, and I can only hope you will feel the same way.

Allow me to end by thanking all my readers from around the world, in 119 countries (translated into 51 languages) from Sydney to Toronto, from Buenos Aires to New York, from Mumbai to Tokyo, while not forgetting my homeland which has allowed this simple storyteller the privilege of spending so many hours in your company.

I should have been Prime Minister, captain of the England cricket team or won an Olympic gold for the 100 metres, but then we can all dream. . .

As the French novelist, Marcel Proust, once reminded us: "We always end up doing the thing we’re second best at."

I can only hope that you’ve discovered what you’re second best at.                                       

The former Lincolnshire MP's last novel is published today

– Jeffrey