Lord Archer of Weston Super Mare
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The Right Honourable The Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare |
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| Member of the House of Lords | |
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Assumed office 27 July 1992 |
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| Member of Parliament for Louth (Lincolnshire) |
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In office 8 December 1969 – 10 October 1974 |
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| Preceded by | Cyril Osborne |
| Succeeded by | Michael Brotherton |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Jeffrey Howard Archer 15 April 1940 Finsbury, London, England |
| Political party | Non-affiliated |
| Other political affiliations |
Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Doreen Weeden (m. 1966) |
| Children | 2 |
| Occupation | Politician, author |
| Website | www |
| Writing career | |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer, playwright |
| Period | 1976–present |
| Genre | Thriller, drama |
Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English novelist and politician.
Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not seek re-election after a financial scandal that left him almost bankrupt. He revived his fortunes as a best-selling novelist; his books have sold around 330 million copies worldwide.
Archer became deputy chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–1986) before resigning after a newspaper accused him of paying money to a prostitute. In 1987 he won a court case and was awarded large damages because of this claim. He was made a life peer in 1992 and subsequently became Conservative candidate to be the first elected Mayor of London. He had to resign his candidacy in 1999 after it emerged that he had lied in his 1987 libel case. He was imprisoned (2001–2003) for perjury and perverting the course of justice, ending his elected political career.
Jeffrey Howard Archer was born in the City of London Maternity Hospital in Finsbury. He 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. His father, William (died 1956), was 64 years old when Jeffrey Archer was born. Early in his career, Archer gave conflicting accounts to the press of his father's supposed, but non-existent, military career. William Archer was, in fact, a bigamist, fraudster and conman, who impersonated another William Archer, a deceased war medal holder. He was at different times employed as a chewing gum salesman in New York and a mortgage broker in London, in the latter capacity being charged at the Old Bailey for a series of fraud offences. On being allowed bail, he absconded to America under the name William Grimwood. As a boy Archer dreamt about being Bristol Rovers Football Club's captain, and still remains a fan of the club.
In 1951, Archer won a scholarship to Wellington School in Somerset, not Wellington College in Berkshire, as he was inclined to claim in the past. At this time his mother, Lola, was employed as a journalist on Weston's local newspaper, the Weston Mercury. She wrote a weekly column entitled "Over the Teacups", and frequently wrote about Jeffrey, calling him 'Tuppence'. Although Archer enjoyed the local fame this brought him, it also caused him to be the victim of bullying while at Wellington School.
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