Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer was born in 1940 in London, and his family soon moved to Somerset. His father, William Archer, was a conman who impersonated another man named William Archer, a war hero. When he was found out, he escaped to the US, where he started another family. Jeffrey’s mother was a journalist who often wrote about Jeffrey in her weekly column in their local paper. After Jeffrey left school, he tried his hand at various jobs. Eventually, he returned to his studies at Oxford, though it is suspected that he applied using false academic qualifications. Upon receiving his diploma, he began his political career, starting a job as a conservative councilor in 1967. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1969. Allegations about his penchant for falsifying records followed him through his political career. In 1974, Archer faced a personal financial crisis, going into almost 500,000 pounds of debt as part of a fraudulent investment scheme. He wrote his first book, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, that year. He returned to politics in the 1980s, being appointed deputy chairman of the Conservative Party by Margaret Thatcher in 1985. He resigned a year later due to accusations of paying a sex worker. Archer sued the reporting newspaper for libel in 1987 and won. However, in 2000, Archer was arrested after he was found guilty of persuading a friend to lie in his first trial. He was imprisoned for four years.