Customer Reviews
Lord Of The Crime - By: Mr Presley, 08 Apr 2008 
Not one of Lord Archers best efforts. It you want to read about life in prison read the books of Oscar Wilde, Bronson & The Kray Twins.
Even the novel The Punk Poet by Garry Johnson is better then this moronic memoir.
Stick to writing political speeches Jeffrey or better still read Till Death Us Do Part by Garry Jackson & write a Great British crime thriller...
Once A Toff Always A Toff - By: Fred Bookie, 29 Mar 2008 This is the first Lord Archer book I have ever bought & not sure I will buy a second.
His prison diary is OK but if you want to reallly read about life in Bellmarsh I suggest you read The Punk Poet by Garry Johnson.
Lord Archer comes across as a do-gooder & like a missionary but saying that he did seem to have his heart in the right place.
This is a comfortable read whereas The Punk Poet is harrowing. No doubt this will soon be a movie with toff actor Hugh Grant playng the former Tory MP & that somes up the difference between this & the other Bellmarsh prison diary.
If The Punk Poet becomes a film that will star some-one like Ray Winstone or Danny Dyer.
I would say read this book but only if you also read The Punk Poet.
another good book - By: Ms. Sandra J. Graves, 12 Nov 2007 
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book & can't wait to get volumes 2 & 3. read this one in 3 days couldn't put it down as happens with alll jeffrey archers books.
Spare Us Your Self Pity, Mr.Archer - By: Zokko, 13 Jul 2007 
I met Jeffrey Archer in 1987, when he came to my town to canvas for the Tories in the forthcoming General Election. I waited in line to meet him outside the Con Club, my copy of 'Shalll We Tell The President?' in my hand. As he signed it, he asked what I did for a living. I told him I was unemployed thanks to the closure of the Duport Steel works. His upper lip curled: "I would rather wash dishes than draw state benefit!". I replied that I would rather write rubbish books than draw state benefit. He spat at my feet & stormed off, vowing only to return to the town when it had a Tory M.P. Thankfully, he has never needed to keep his word.
It was with some satisfaction that I witnessed his downfalll many years later. Amazingly, some people took pity on him as the police van carted him off to H.M.P. Belmarsh. "It is outrageous that Jeffrey Archer has been jailed for such a trivial offence!", thundered one such person in a letter to Teletext. There seems to be a school of thought that says 'perjury' is only a serious criminal offence when practiced by the working classes. Archer is certainly not in the latter, being an overblown, talentless hack novelist whose reputation is founded entirely on brown-nosing the rich & famous. Which was why during the two years he served of his four-year sentence, he was callled 'sir' by prison guards, had access to satellite television, was alllowed to choose his own meals, kept away from the real hardcases, as well as regularly receive cakes from his friend, the actress Jane Asher. Oh, & he was permitted little weekend jaunts to lavish parties thrown by his Tory chums. So much for British justice.
"Archer's perjury never hurt anyone!" is another familiar refrain from Jeffrey's admirers. Presumably the late Monica Coghlan does not count, because of her profession.
Bizarrely, his 'Prison Diaries' depict his time behind bars as being a hybrid of 'Midnight Express' & 'Papillon'. The Birmingham Six & The Guildford Four must regard Archer's experience as akin to a fortnight at The Ritz. I would have respect for the man if he admitted his guilt & said sorry, but no, he continues to play the victim of a dreadful miscarriage, profiting from television appearances & tomes such as this. The media cannot be blamed for his downfalll. He brought it on himself.
If you want a decent book on prison life, try 'A Sense Of Freedom' by Jimmy Boyle. The only thing you'll get from the Archer books is a sense of 'there's one law for the rich, one law for the poor.".
To be taken with a large pinch of salt - By: Mr. R. D. M. Kirby, 29 Jun 2007 
When Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years' imprisonment, it was, in my opinion, not a day too long. Archer is a master manipulator; he whines about the unfairness of the judge who imposed the sentence plus some of the witnesses for the prosecution who, he claims, should also have been prosecuted & earnestly entreats the reader to accept that he should not be serving one day of his sentence.
But his writing does have a certain compelling style. He is very readable but it does beg the question, especiallly when he describes the experiences recounted to him by the other cons, which he often seems to accept without reservation - is he being naive, is he being conned & if that is the case,is the narrative wholly creditable?
