64 Facts About Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer was Member of Parliament for Louth from 1969 to 1974, but did not seek re-election after a financial scandal that left him almost bankrupt.

Jeffrey Archer was made a life peer in 1992 and subsequently became the first Conservative candidate to be selected as a candidate for mayor of London.

Jeffrey Archer ended his candidacy in 1999 after it emerged that he had lied in the case in 1987.

Jeffrey Howard Archer was born in the City of London Maternity Hospital in Holloway, London on 15 April 1940.

Jeffrey Archer was two weeks old when his family moved to Somerset, eventually settling in the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare, where Archer spent most of his early life.

Early in his career, Jeffrey Archer gave conflicting accounts to the press of his father's supposed, but non-existent, military career.

William Jeffrey Archer was, in fact, a bigamist, fraudster, and conman, who impersonated another William Jeffrey Archer, a deceased war medal holder.

Jeffrey Archer was at different times employed as a chewing gum salesman in New York and a mortgage broker in London.

In 1951, Jeffrey Archer won a scholarship to Wellington School in Somerset after passing the 11-plus.

Jeffrey Archer wrote a weekly column entitled "Over the Teacups", and frequently wrote about Jeffrey, calling him 'Tuppence'.

Jeffrey Archer left school with O-levels in English literature, art, and history.

Jeffrey Archer then spent a few years in a variety of jobs, including training with the army and a short period with the Metropolitan Police.

Jeffrey Archer later worked as a physical education teacher, first at Vicar's Hill, a preparatory school in Hampshire, and later at Dover College in Kent.

In 1963 Jeffrey Archer was offered a place at the University of Oxford Delegacy of Extra-Mural Studies to study for a Diploma of Education.

The course was based in the department, and Jeffrey Archer became a member of Brasenose College.

Jeffrey Archer gained a blue in athletics and went on to run for England, and once competed for Great Britain.

Jeffrey Archer raised money for the charity Oxfam, obtaining the support of The Beatles in a fundraising drive.

The band accepted his invitation to visit the Principal's lodge at Brasenose College, where they were photographed with Jeffrey Archer and dons of the college, although they did not play there.

Jeffrey Archer asked if I knew this Jeffrey Archer bloke.

Around this time, Jeffrey Archer began a career in politics, serving as a Conservative councillor for Havering on the Greater London Council.

Jeffrey Archer set up his own fundraising and public relations company, Arrow Enterprises, in 1969.

The gallery ultimately lost money and Jeffrey Archer sold it two years later.

At 29, Jeffrey Archer was elected Member of Parliament for the Lincolnshire constituency of Louth, holding the seat for the Conservative Party in a by-election on 4 December 1969.

Jeffrey Archer beat Ian Gow to the selection after winning over a substantial proportion of younger members at the selection meeting.

Berkeley tried to persuade the Conservative Central Office that Jeffrey Archer was unsuitable as a parliamentary candidate.

Jeffrey Archer brought a defamation action against Berkeley and the story was kept out of the press, although a truncated version of the story did appear in The Times.

In parliament, Jeffrey Archer was on the left of the Conservative Party, rebelling against some of his party's policies.

Jeffrey Archer advocated free TV licences for elderly people and was against museum entrance charges.

In 1974, Jeffrey Archer was a casualty of a fraudulent investment scheme involving a Canadian company called Aquablast.

Jeffrey Archer denied the accusation for many years, but in the late 1990s he finally acknowledged that he had taken the suits, although he claimed that at the time he had not realised he had left the shop.

Jeffrey Archer wrote his first book, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, in the autumn of 1974, as a means of avoiding bankruptcy.

In 1988, author Kathleen Burnett accused Jeffrey Archer of plagiarizing a story she had written, and including it in his short-story collection, A Twist in the Tale.

Jeffrey Archer denied he had plagiarized the story, claiming he had simply been inspired by the idea.

Jeffrey Archer has said that he spends considerable time writing and re-writing each book.

Jeffrey Archer goes abroad to write the first draft, working in blocks of two hours at a time, then writes anything up to 17 drafts in total.

Since 2010, Jeffrey Archer has written the first draft of each new book at his villa in Majorca, called "Writer's Block".

In 2011, Jeffrey Archer published the first of seven books in The Clifton Chronicles series, which follow the life of Harry Clifton from his birth in 1920, through to his funeral in 1993.

Jeffrey Archer was appointed deputy chairman of the Conservative Party by Margaret Thatcher in September 1985.

Jeffrey Archer was later forced to apologise for the remark, saying that his words had been "taken out of context".

Adam Raphael soon afterwards found proof that Jeffrey Archer had perjured himself at the trial, but his superiors were unwilling to take the risk of a potentially costly libel case.

The News of the World later settled out-of-court with Jeffrey Archer, acknowledging they, too, had libelled him.

In May 1991, Jeffrey Archer organised a charity pop concert, starring Rod Stewart, Paul Simon, Sting and Gloria Estefan, who all performed free of charge.

Jeffrey Archer then attacked violent films and urged tougher prison conditions to prevent criminals from re-offending.

Jeffrey Archer criticised the role of "do-gooders" and finished off the speech by denouncing the opposition party's law and order policies.

Jeffrey Archer though was opposed to the age of consent for gay men being 16.

Jeffrey Archer's solicitors admitted that he had made a mistake, but Archer later said that he had been exonerated.

In 1999, Jeffrey Archer had been selected by the Conservative Party as candidate for the London mayoral election of 2000, with the support of two former Prime Ministers, Baroness Thatcher and John Major.

On 21 November 1999 the News of the World published allegations made by Ted Francis, a former friend, that Jeffrey Archer had committed perjury in his 1987 libel case.

On 26 September 2000, Jeffrey Archer was charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice during the 1987 libel trial.

Simultaneously, Jeffrey Archer starred in a production of his own courtroom play The Accused, staged at London's Theatre Royal Haymarket.

Jeffrey Archer never spoke during the trial, though his wife Mary again gave evidence as she had done during the 1987 trial.

On 19 July 2001, Jeffrey Archer was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at the 1987 trial.

Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years' imprisonment by Mr Justice Potts.

Jeffrey Archer's mother had died shortly before he was sentenced and he was released for the day to attend her funeral.

Jeffrey Archer was initially sent to HM Prison Belmarsh, a Category "A" prison, but was moved to HM Prison Wayland, a Category "C" prison in Norfolk, on 9 August 2001.

Jeffrey Archer was then transferred to HM Prison North Sea Camp, an open prison, in October 2001.

On 21 July 2003, Jeffrey Archer was released on licence from Hollesley Bay after serving half of his sentence.

Jeffrey Archer remained a peer, there being no legal provision through which his peerage could be removed at the time other than passing a new Act of Parliament.

Jeffrey Archer retained membership of the House of Lords, which did not then have the power to expel members; however, Archer did not take an active part in parliamentary proceedings until his retirement from the Lords on 4 July 2024.

In July 2001, shortly after Jeffrey Archer was jailed for perjury, Scotland Yard began investigating allegations that millions of pounds had disappeared from his Kurdish charity.

In 2004, the government of Equatorial Guinea alleged that Jeffrey Archer was one of the financiers of the failed 2004 coup d'etat attempt against it, citing bank details and telephone records as evidence.

Jeffrey Archer has been married to Mary Weeden since July 1966.

On 26 February 2006, on Andrew Marr's Sunday AM programme, Jeffrey Archer said he had no interest in returning to front-line politics and would pursue his writing instead.

Jeffrey Archer has published 42 works, which have been translated into 33 languages, with combined sales of more than 275 million copies.