Jeffrey Archer in India to promote his latest novel ‘A Prisoner of Birth’

Jeffrey Archer has been on a tour to India to promote his latest novel, ‘A Prisoner of Birth’. Interestingly, on the advice of one of his friends, Jeffrey Archer has not only proposed to visit Deli, Mumbai and Chennai, the metropolis, but also Lucknow and Pune, which shows his awakening to the reality that in India there are as many as 200 million readers, an equivalent to the US population and there are as many 50 million serious readers in India. Even in his website, he had as many as 5,40,000 hits in the last month, of which, ¼ th  was from India.

It is interesting to learn that Jeffrey’s first book ‘Not a Penny more, Not a Penny less’ was released in the year 1976, out of his necessity, when he became bankrupt.He wielded the pen to ward of accusations  of being insolvent and the result was a book, he calls a sentimental favourite.His second book ‘Kane and Abel’ (1979) was a huge success and it sells even today 1000 copies a day. ‘The Prodigal Daughter (1982),Twelve Red Herrings(1994), False Impression (2006) and his latest novel is ‘A Prisoner of Birth’(2008)

Jeffrey Archer calls his latest novel, ‘A Prisoner of Birth’ a modern day version of  The Count of  Monte Cristo. Jeffrey Archer in his latest book uses his prison experience to the fullest with the story of a gay accused of a crime he never committed. ‘We draw from our experience of life.We are comfortable about writing what we know’, Archer says indirectly admitting to the influence of his prison years on his book.Incidentally, his two year imprisonment has lent itself four books now.

Jeffrey Archer also says that his challenge was to make everything authentic, including getting the gay out of the prison and making the reader believe it.

When asked about his future projects, Jeffrey Archer said that he is currently working on a script for a film that he intends to turn into a novel shortly.It is based on a real person, a first for Archer.