Jeffrey Archer fears chance of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reconciliation is ‘likely over’
Author Jeffrey Archer, who is close to members of the Royal Family, has revealed why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will not back down from the deep rift with the Firm.
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It takes a brave man to pen a thriller about the Royal Family when you are friends with some of them, but then, Lord Archer has never been one to shy away from a challenge.
“I sent it to three members of the Royal Family,” the best-selling author and former politician tells News Corp Australia, “and all three of them of loved it.”
While he’s not divulging who those three royals are, you don’t have to be his fictional detective William Warwick to deduce one is Sarah Ferguson, “the Duchess of York has written a profuse critique for the American papers,” he goes on to say; and another, most likely, is Camilla, Queen Consort. “She’s already read it.”
He isn’t worried about the timing of the book, coming straight after the Queen’s funeral.
“You can’t miss my affection for Diana or my respect for the Royal Family,” he says.
The novel, Next in Line, the fifth of the William Warwick series, sees the Chief Inspector joining the Royalty Protection division and investigating the kidnapping of Princess Diana – someone Archer also counted as a friend.
The 82-year-old, known to his millions of readers worldwide as “Jeffrey Archer” rather than by his life peerage title, meets us in his penthouse apartment in London, on the banks of the Thames. Sporting a blue sweater and shirt, black trousers and slippers, he explains most of his novels begin life by someone telling him a story, sitting on the same sofa we’re perched on, in his sumptuous apartment, all cream walls, tiles and marble, with – like the characters in his novels – priceless artwork hung on the walls.
This time, it’s all about Royalty Protection. “I knew quite a few people attached to Diana, so I called on them and talked it through,” he says.
“Is this a true story?” the book teases and while most of it is clearly an enjoyable romp, many little details are based on fact. One real scene is where Diana hosts a charity dinner at society jeweller’s Asprey, where many of the well-heeled guests pocket the silver salt cellars and pepper pots.
“Ken Wharfe (Diana’s former protection officer) gave me that. Of course, he couldn’t leave her side because his job was to protect her, not pepper pots,” he says.
Having run many charity events with Diana, he had a lot of affection for her. “She knew how to wind any man around her finger, me included. She was very, very good at it. But it was always with a purpose. We always came out with more money for the charity or something worthwhile.
“She didn’t go just to be famous and beautiful. She wanted to do something.”
The author had a birds-eye view of the Queen’s funeral from his penthouse and said he found the whole day staggering.
“It was done so beautifully. The highlight for me was the breaking of the rod over the coffin. It’s the end of an era. She’s gone,” he says.
It’s another formidable woman to whom Archer looks for the future success of King Charles III’s reign – Camilla.
“The wonderful thing is that he’s married to a very sensible, down-to-earth, practical, wise, nice, lady who I know very well,” he says.
“And over the years that I’ve known her, she never changes. She is just a nice, human being.
“He’s lucky to have someone that solid and sensible within a yard of him.”
That is something Archer himself might appreciate, given the support of his own wife Mary over a career of ups and downs in the public eye, both as politician and penman, which in the early 2000s included a two-year stint in jail for perjury.
RECONCILIATION BETWEEN HARRY AND ROYALS SCUPPERED
Back to the present and the royals: Archer says one thing he hoped was that the Queen’s funeral would help forge a reconciliation between Harry and Meghan and the new monarchy, but the author says he fears Harry’s own much-vaunted book deal may scupper that.
“I was hoping it would draw them all together and we’d all be getting on to the next phase, but I don’t think so,” he says.
“I’m very sad. I fear for the book. I know they’re writing the chapter on the funeral, so I suppose that’s what the book will end on. They paid him a lot of money – something like £20 million? You want to calm it down if you’re paid £20 million?
“I always say rather cruelly, I could survive in California for about a week. It’s not a state that I’d want to stay in – it’s one temperature and they’re all wanting to be celebrities,” he says.
“And (Meghan) is now a big celebrity. How it will end? I have no idea. She’s a very, very clever woman.”
Next in Line hits the shelves this week, but Archer has already written the next book in the series.
It continues the royal theme, thanks to a serendipitous conversation on a cruise, where a fellow guest, who worked for the Palace, shared what the author says is “the best story I’ve ever been told.” It’s not something that happens often, he adds.
“I sat there gasping,” Archer says.
“Sometimes you get a good short story from people. What you rarely get is a book. But he gave me a book in five minutes.
“I’m not sure he’s not regretting that now,” he says.
“When I rang later and said I had finished it, I could sense he was getting worried. But the person he served was the Queen, so it makes it all right.”
So, does he want royalties?
He looks aghast.
“He only gave me five lines. It’s like, Kane and Abel: a story of two men. Both born on the same day. One with nothing. One with everything. Do you want a cut, or do you want to write the 600 pages?”
Fair enough.
Next in Line by Jeffrey Archer, is out October 5, published by HarperCollins. It’s our new Book Of The Month, which means you can get it for 30 per cent off the RRP at Booktopia by entering the code NEXT at checkout. Love books? Come and share your thoughts on royals, reading and more at the Sunday Book Club group on Facebook.
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