NOT GUILTY, MY LORD (Abstract)
Author : Jeffry Archer
Jeffrey Archer is no longer writing prison diaries,thought prisons and courts are now the
main content in his latest thriller.
A poor man,Danny Cartwright, is wrongly convicted of murdering Bernie,his oldest
friend,while the rich boys who did it get away.The poor man goes to the high security
Belmarsh prison,with which Mr.Archer has an occasion to be familiar with,while the rich
boys go on with their successful lives.
“I am innocent says Danny to everyone who listens to him,but in prison,everyone
proclaims his innocence and few if any believe him.However,in this case,one person
steadfastly believes in him and his innocence.She is Beth Wilson,the very woman
Danny has proposed to the night her brother was murdered in a streetfight.
Danny seeks to beter himself with the help of his cellmate,Sir Nicholas Moncrieff,who
teaches him proper English – reading,writing and speaking.when Nicholas is killed just
before he is to be paroled,danny, with some help,manages to assume his identity and is
soon released from prison,free to claim Nicholas’considerable inheritance.now he has
the means to plot his revenge against the original perpitrators of the crime-spencer
craig,an attorney;larry davenport,a popular tv antor,and geraled payne,an investment
dealer.the fourth conspirator,toby Mortimer,an aristocratic addict,has died in the
meanwhile.
Revenge is best served cold,and the three muskitiers,really don’t know what hit
them.but,then danny also makes his share of mistakes and lands sup in the
slammer.will he get out of it?you have to read the book to find out.
Archer has taken a tail that strectes readers’imagination a bit,but he has come up with a
page ternal.the readers of archers fourteenth novel find it smooth reading,a tribute to
the many revisions of the draft that the author says his books go through
Some critics are having a field day making much of the similarity between a prisoner of
birth and dumma’s master piece,the court mont cristo,and finding a lack of depth and of
appericiation of “unrootedness”that becomes a major cost of reinventing oneself liked
danny did.however,this will not detract the archer loyalists in any way.
We can see reflections of life-his and what we can relate with-in the correctors that he
brings out.they are the usualls suspects,richmen,powerful women,political figures
,judges,lawyers and cops.The life of the author has been full of ups and downs.
In1974,he was on the brink of bankruptcy,and resigned from the british house of
commans when he wrote his first book,Not a Pennymore,Not a Pennyless.It became a
best seller,and he shot back to fame.
In1987 he emerged victorious in court after he successfully took on tabloid newspapers
which said he had paid for a prostitude.He was made a lord in1992.In 2001,however he
was convicted of perjury in connection with the1987 case,and sentenced to four years in
jail. He was released after two years.
All this provides the author with a wealth of experience to draw upon while writing his
books.The twists and turns in the plot propel you on and if Lord Archer is back at the top
of the bestseller charts,he deserves to be.
-DR.NAVRAJ SINGH SANDHU,P.A.H.S.-1
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