Search Results

“... reptiles of the nastiest variety. So there are some glorious stories about the sycophancy, say, of Jeffrey Archer or the man whom McAlpine blames for the entire ‘conspiracy’ to put John Major in Downing Street, the relatively harmless Europhile whip, Tristan Garel-Jones. Any enjoyment of these revelations is ruined, however, by McAlpine’s snobbery ...”

“... be on the warpath against élitism. In due time we could have an extensive study of, say, Jeffrey Archer. In fact, as writers, Archer and du Maurier have a lot in common, apart from the side issue that both their spouses were once publicly commended for being personally fastidious and well-groomed. One of the ...”

“... they had a status worth protecting could be assumed to have the funds with which to protect it. If Jeffrey Archer had been in an earlier and less pecunious phase of his life when the Daily Star libelled him, he would never had got to court to vindicate himself. And it doesn’t end with bringing libel actions. Legal aid is not available to defend a libel ...”

“... the storyline eventually peters out in a flurry of half-hearted plot twists that might even make Jeffrey Archer blush. Canteen Culture is good on the sheer boredom of routine work, but, despite the author’s experience in the Met, it reveals only that the police value solidarity more than legal niceties, have trouble accepting people from ethnic ...”

“... have earned it the nickname ‘Holiday Bay’, and, given such luxury, it seems unsurprising that Jeffrey Archer is now seeing out his stretch there. Almost a hundred years ago, however, Hollesley Bay was one of the labour ‘colonies’ set up by the Poor Law guardians of Poplar in London’s East End, who sought to ease the Poor Law crisis in the ...”

“... correspondents and Tory politicians may want to know exactly what, say, Norman Lamont said to Jeffrey Archer on 20 November 1990. Nevertheless, Clarke’s interest in these matters is also lucky for his readers, since it enables a stylish amateur of political private diaries and other forms of planned indiscretion to satisfy our taste for the higher ...”

“... works recommended by Pope Paul VI are called Wet Knickers, Pussy Talk and Cream on My Face; that Jeffrey Archer is confused with Kingsley Amis, and Cliff Richard with Vera Lynn (‘Durable singer of uplifting ballads who has, for as long as most of us can remember, been regarded as one of the undisputed queens of British popular music’). But for me ...”

“... Among recently exposed fantasists, he lists Patrick O’Brian, Bruce Chatwin, Laurie Lee and Jeffrey Archer, all writers for whom a legend as man of action was a large part of their stock in trade. The South African poet Roy Campbell, who was a world-class liar, influenced Van der Post at an impressionable age. (‘I have no moral objection to ...”

“... of Parliamentary privilege. Hamilton untied that knot at once. Supported by Lady Thatcher, Lord Archer and the entire Parliamentary Tory Party, he conspired to force through Parliament an amendment to the Defamation Act which allows MPs to waive their privilege in order to sue for libel. Backed by his new law, Hamilton charged back into court and, a few ...”

“... Government’s replacing of O-Level and CSE exams by the new GCSE ‘proved a great success’. Jeffrey Archer makes it, but is held at a prophylactic distance. The SDP/Liberal Alliance is judged to have ‘foundered on the pique of David Steel and the pride of David Owen’: it is not clear why a note to this effect had to be appended to this other ...”

“... years later, Mr Justice Caulfield summed up with legendary imbecility in the libel case brought by Jeffrey Archer against the Daily Star, Peter told me, earnestly but with his eyes twinkling, that his Thorpe satire had now become a standard judicial text which judges could only ignore ‘on pain of instant execution’. Like many comic geniuses, Peter ...”

“... have emerged. Her very best interviews are with men, the puffed-up sort – Bragg, Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Archer and, more recently, Sir Alan Sugar. She likes artists, especially the erstwhile Young British Artists, and above all, Tracey Emin, who knows how to lay on a juicy spread: the offerings for their first encounter in 2001 included a used condom ...”

“... the video guide to the National Trust house at Hughenden, once lived in by Disraeli, is voiced by Jeffrey Archer, euphemistically described by the Trust as a ‘provocative figure’. And in the matter of pornography the Trust has recently sponsored an app to accompany a tour round London’s Soho, the highlights of which are not architectural. It is ...”

“... the central character was already out of prison and back on the streets. According to the papers, Jeffrey Archer, now prisoner FF8282, is finishing a novel about prison life. Maybe first-hand experience will help him to improve on his earlier efforts; it would be hard to do worse. In Archer’s Twelve Red Herrings ...”

“... up a petty criminal, a copper’s nark, a seller of iffy cars – rather than the man who made Jeffrey Archer a life peer. Major feels he was let down by ‘the bastards’ in his own party, while Lamont feels he was badly treated all round. It is Lamont, curiously, who puts his finger on the things that matter: the controversy over Europe and the ...”