It might be expected that the Telegraph would give a relatively benign appreciation of Jeffrey Archer in its Obituary columns. The extracts below show this is not the case. There is a full link below but it may be paywalled.
The fatal flaw that undermined Archer’s achievements, as his wife, Dame Mary Archer, once explained, was his “gift for inaccurate précis”. The less charitable might have called it his propensity to tell whopping lies to dig his way out of trouble. He was, as Willie Whitelaw remarked, “an accident waiting to happen”.
The Daily Telegraph at one point was so upset by an Archer speech, it suggested he should “be prosecuted under the Trades Descriptions Act for calling himself a Conservative”.
Jeffrey Archer, best-selling novelist and incomparably colourful politician – obituary
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