In the company of Lord Jeffrey Archer

Last evening I attended an interactive session with Lord Jeffrey Archer (picture) at The Bengal Club. It was a gathering of about 70 people and I was invited by Siddharth Pansari of Crossword and The Telegraph.

I also met the O’Brien brothers, Derek (picture) and Barry, during the session.

Lord Jeffrey Archer has been a controversial politician, a master storyteller and a popular novelist with a literary career spanning over three and half decades. His novels, plays and short stories have earned his a fan following across the globe.

Currently he is in India on a book tour for his latest novel Only Time Will Tell that has become a best seller in India. He has already visited Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore before arriving at Kolkata. Not just India, Jeffrey would be visiting Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia this month.

For someone who has lived life king size and courted controversy every now and then, the highs and lows of his eventful life has been as dramatic as the plots of his novels. Jailed for nearly three years in 2001, Jeffrey penned a three-volume memoir A Prison Diary during imprisonment.

Celebrities, bureaucrats and a large number of other eminent citizens of Kolkata queued up for his autograph. During the interaction, I asked him if he would agree to sell the rights of his book for a film in Bengali. To which he said that he had turned down offers of 1 million pounds during his literary career by various people.

As the list of political nominations and candidates are being announced, the stage for the local electoral battle is picking up.

ess bee