Jeffrey Archer is top of the charts in India -- again

When I walk into Lord Jeffrey Archer’s suite at the Oberoi hotel, he is in front of the television reluctantly turning down the volume on the India South Africa Cricket World Cup match.

I toss some nicety between him and the television, along the lines of "I hope I’m not interrupting."

I’m summarily told that I am.

Followed by a cheerful, “Very well then, goodbye!” from the former politician turned author.

This could be the quickest story I ever did.

Luckily, Archer is adept at fielding questions with one eye trained on the pitch.

As we talk, he does a better job of throwing one-liners and batting away criticism than the cricketers who lose the game.

Either the wit written into Archer's words derives spontaneously from life, or pages of practice. With four decades as a bestselling author behind him, it’s hard to tell.

Archer's new book "Only Time Will Tell" is touted as his most ambitious project to date.

It is planned as the first in a series of five books that will follow the ventures and misadventures of Harry Clifton, who is born in Britain in the early 20th century and lives for 100 years. 

The sequels have been slotted to release every subsequent year, which is a punishingly prolific pace for a 70-year-old.

The first 20 years of Clifton’s life that make up "Only Time Will Tell," are transmitted in Archer’s trademark telegraphic style, which makes for a breezy read.

The novel was launched in India in March with Landmark bookstore, prior to its international release, as a measure against piracy. Archer’s popularity here paints an obvious target.

At a stoplight in Chennai he was offered the latest Archer by a street-seller, goading him to growl, “I am the latest Archer.”

Excerpts from the conversation.

CNNGo: You sold 1,500 copies at the very first venue (Chennai) you spoke at?

Archer looks pleased as punch and not the slightest bit humble as he mumbles the obligatory noises. His book debuted at number one in India.

CNNGo: How did you conceive of the Clifton chronicles?

Lord Jeffrey Archer: Well, I’d rewritten "Kane and Abel" about three years ago, because I felt after 30 years I could re-craft it. And that inspired me really.

After 84 reprints, 30 million copies sold, I thought I could do an even bigger saga. A hundred years from 1920 to 2020 in five separate books.

To be quite honest, I didn’t realize what I was taking on. 

I did realize that the first one had to be very special, because if it wasn’t, why would anyone buy the third, the fourth, the fifth. But if I got the first and the second right, then I could capture the level.

CNNGo: Are you planning to coast on your success after the first two?

Archer: No, no. I did not say that [with finger wagging]. If I get the first two right, the momentum will be there. I obviously want three, four, and five to be even better. With this beginning, I think I have it.

CNNGo: Given how well you do cliffhangers, I’m surprised there aren’t more cinematic adaptations of your work.

Archer: I agree! Eight of my 17 novels have been optioned. They [Hollywood] never get around to raising the 50 million. Some rom-com comes, jumps in and kills it.

[At nodded sympathy] Well, you might shake your head, but that’s what happens. So many bad films, but Hollywood has its formula for making money.

Columbia [Pictures Industry] has "Paths of Glory" [a novel that suggests Englishman George Mallory was the first to conquer Everest]. It sounds promising, but they’re never going to make it. You can’t climb Everest cheaply.

CNNGo: And you’ve just finished a draft for the second book of the Clifton chronicles?

Archer: Yes, which means I’ve put in about 300 hours and I have a beginning, a middle and an end. I’ve still got about 650 hours left to go.

I take a month’s break between the first and the second session and then I plunge back in.

Most of the story’s there, it’s just a matter of making it faster and smoother.

CNNGo: Do the slurs of ghostwriting still sting?

Archer: Since you’ve figured it out, this ghostwriter who writes my books for me…[laughs].

Do you really think I could become number one in the world with someone else writing?

In fact, I’d like to tell you that the number one batsman in the world is not Sachin Tendulkar. It’s me. It’s equally envious and stupid and I couldn’t care a damn. I handwrite every word.

CNNGo: How do your novels evolve?

Archer: Probably a year before, you start playing with it in your mind, running it through.

You can’t actually get going until you write the first sentence.

The essence of this story is about a man born in Bristol who has a fine voice, and gets a scholarship and gets into Oxford, and war breaks out. You can do that in two lines.

In the end, you’ve got to sit down and write it.

CNNGo: Where do you get your energy?

Archer: I don’t know, my mother, I think. [Maisie, Clifton’s mother in the book, is clearly a tribute to Archer’s own]. And energy's just a talent, like playing the piano or singing a song, and it shouldn’t be underestimated.

CNNGo: Is crafting competition a talent too? Many of your plots are entrenched in rivalries.

Archer: Yeah, that’s the way I am. Everybody who writes a book, writes semi-autobiographical. You can be sure of that.

CNNGo: There’s some unauthorized biographies floating around. Have you considered setting the record straight?

Archer: I tried to years ago, now I have better things to do. Like the Clifton chronicles.

CNNGo: Do you think it’ll rival the other Harry series from the UK?

Archer: That’s an amazing achievement. Great girl [JK Rowling]. She’s done terrifically well. She is quite phenomenal. I still want to beat her.

CNNGo: With all this talk of competition, how do you feel about cheating -- as in piracy?

Archer: All I can say is that it’s very rough on the publisher, the bookshop, everyone involved.

Someone can steal your book on a Monday and have it on the streets on Wednesday for half the price, sometimes less, and half the time in great, big stacks on the road for everyone to see.

So when people say 50 million people have read "Kane and Abel" in India, how many of them actually paid to read it?

CNNGo: A staggering stat. And to think you stumbled into writing.

Archer: [Marcel] Proust said we all end up doing the thing we’re second best at.

At which point, the match enters an exciting phase, and I lose Lord Archer’s interest to his first love, cricket.

"Only Time Will Tell" is published by Pan Macmillan, and is available in paperback for Rs 325 across India.