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Hampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre in 2007
Address	Eton Avenue
City	London, England
Coordinates	51°32′36″N 0°10′27″W / 51.543333°N 0.174167°W / 51.543333; -0.174167Coordinates: 51°32′36″N 0°10′27″W / 51.543333°N 0.174167°W / 51.543333; -0.174167
Designation	RIBA Award 2003
Architect	Bennetts Associates
Owned by	Hampstead Theatre Company
Capacity	140-325 seated on two levels 80 seated (Michael Frayn Space)
Type	Flexible stage and seating
Opened	2003
Years active	Since 1959 (various locations)
www.hampsteadtheatre.com

Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in the vicinity of Swiss Cottage and Belsize Park, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. In 2009 it celebrated its 50 year anniversary.

The original theatre (The Hampstead Theatre Club) was created in Moreland Hall in 1959. James Roose-Evans was the first Artistic Director, and the 1959–1960 season included The Dumb Waiter and The Room by Harold Pinter, Eugene Ionesco's Jacques and The Sport of My Mad Mother by Ann Jellicoe. In 1962 the company moved to a portable cabin in Swiss Cottage where it remained for nearly 40 years, before, in 2003, the new purpose-built Hampstead Theatre opened in Swiss Cottage. The main auditorium now seats between 150 and 325 people. The studio theatre, the Michael Frayn Space, seats up to 80 people and hosts Heat&Light, Hampstead Theatre's Young Company for ages 10-25. Heat&Light produces 12 productions each year, including, previously, new plays by Bola Agbaje, Mike Bartlett, Joel Horwood, Jane Bodie, Ed Hime, Nick Grosso and John Donnelly.

As part of its commitment to developing new writers and new writing, the theatre nurtures and commissions playwrights, and also hosts regular Start Nights, where extracts of new plays are performed to an audience who give their constructive feedback on what they have seen.

The Hampstead Theatre is currently hosting Chariots of Fire, the 2012 stage adaptation of the film of the same title. The play will transfer to the West End on 22 June.

Artistic directors[link]

• James Roose-Evans (1959-1971)
• Vivian Matalon (1971-1973
• Michael Rudman (1973-1978)
• David Aukin (1978-1984)
• Michael Attenborough (1984-1988)
• Jenny Topper (1988-2003)
• Anthony Clark (2003-2010)
• Edward Hall (2010-)

Playwrights[link]

Playwrights who have had their early work produced at the theatre include:

• Simon Block
• Michael Frayn
• Brian Friel
• Terry Johnson
• Hanif Kureishi
• Mike Leigh
• Abi Morgan
• Rona Munro
• Tamsin Oglesby
• Harold Pinter
• Philip Ridley
• Saman Shad
• Shelagh Stephenson
• Crispin Whittell
• Roy Williams

External links[link]

• Hampstead Theatre Official website

Coordinates: 51°33′15″N 0°10′28″W / 51.5541°N 0.1744°W / 51.5541; -0.1744

Hampstead
Downshire Hill
Hampstead  Hampstead shown within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ265855
London borough	Camden
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	NW3
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Hampstead and Kilburn
London Assembly	Barnet and Camden
List of places: UK • England • London

Hampstead (/ˈhæmpstɪd/ or /-stɛd/), commonly known as Hampstead Village, is an affluent area of London, England, 4 miles (6.4 km) north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. It has some of the most expensive housing in the London area. The village of Hampstead has more millionaires within its boundaries than any other area of the United Kingdom.^[1]

History[link]

Etymology[link]

The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon words ham and stede, which means, and is a cognate of, the Modern English "homestead".

To 1900[link]

Kenwood House, Hampstead

Roadworks on Heath Street in Hampstead around 1865, in Ford Madox Brown's painting Work

A current day view of location used for the Madox Brown painting

Although early records of Hampstead can be found in a grant by King Ethelred the Unready to the monastery of St. Peter’s at Westminster (AD 986) and it is referred to in the Domesday Book (1086), the history of Hampstead is generally traced back to the 17th century. Trustees of the Well started advertising the medicinal qualities of the chalybeate waters (water impregnated with iron) in 1700. Although Hampstead Wells was initially most successful and fashionable, its popularity declined in the 1800s due to competition with other fashionable London spas. The spa was demolished in 1882, although a water fountain was left behind.

Hampstead started to expand following the opening of the North London Railway in the 1860s (now the London Overground with passenger services operated by Transport for London), and expanded further after the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway opened in 1907 (now part of London Underground's Northern Line) and provided fast travel to central London.

Much luxurious housing was created during the 1870s and 1880s, in the area that is now the political ward of Frognal & Fitzjohns. Much of this housing remains to this day.

20th century[link]

In the 20th century, a number of notable buildings were created including:

• Hampstead tube station (1907), the deepest station on the Underground network
• Isokon building (1932)
• Hillfield Court (1932)
• 2 Willow Road (1938)
• Hampstead Theatre (2003)
• Swiss Cottage Central Library (1964)
• Royal Free Hospital (mid 1970s)
• the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre (2006)

Keats House, Hampstead, where Keats wrote his Ode to a Nightingale

Cultural attractions in the area include the Freud Museum, Keats House, Kenwood House, Fenton House, The Isokon building, Burgh House, and the Camden Arts Centre. The large Victorian Hampstead Library and Town Hall was recently converted and extended as a creative industries centre.

On 14 August 1975 Hampstead entered the UK Weather Records with the Highest 155-min total rainfall at 169 mm. As of November 2008 this record remains.

Mark Pevsner, the grandson of Sir Nicholas Pevsner, described Hampstead as "a large collection of roads and passages which don't go in straight lines, houses of different ages, many of them good architecture but more often it's just the way they fit together, full of nice vistas and surprises. Hampstead is a huge collection of twists and turns."^{[unreliable source?]}

Politics[link]

Hampstead became part of the County of London in 1889 and in 1899 the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead was formed. The borough town hall on Haverstock Hill, which was also the location of the Register Office, can be seen in newsreel footage of many celebrity civil marriages. In 1965 the metropolitan borough was abolished and its area merged with that of the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn and the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras to form the modern-day London Borough of Camden. Hampstead is part of the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency, formed at the 2010 general election. It was formerly part of the Hampstead and Highgate constituency and since 1992 the member of parliament has been the former actress Glenda Jackson of the Labour Party.

The area is also home to the left-wing Labour magazine Tribune and the satirical magazine the Hampstead Village Voice. The local paid-for newspaper is the Hampstead and Highgate Express,^[2] known locally as the "Ham & High". Hampstead is also covered by the borough-wide Camden New Journal.

Since October 2008 the area has been represented on Camden Council by Liberal Democrat councilor Linda Chung, elected in a by-election to serve alongside Conservatives Kirsty Roberts and Chris Knight.

Hampstead Liberalism[link]

The area has a significant tradition of educated liberal humanism, often referred to (often disparagingly) as "Hampstead Liberalism". In the 1960s, the figure of the Hampstead Liberal was notoriously satirised by Peter Simple of the Daily Telegraph in the character of Lady Dutt-Pauker, an immensely wealthy aristocratic socialist whose Hampstead mansion, Marxmount House, contained an original pair of Bukharin's false teeth on display alongside precious Ming vases, neo-constructivist art, and the complete writings of Stalin.^[3] As applied to an individual, the term "Hampstead Liberal" is not synonymous with "champagne socialist" but it does carry some of the same implications, and both terms have correspondingly been used to describe figures such as Margaret Hodge.^[4]

Places of interest[link]

Hampstead Heath west ponds

The Viaduct on Hampstead Heath

Isokon Building, Hampstead

Freud's sofa, at 20 Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead

Sites[link]

To the north and east of Hampstead, and separating it from Highgate, is London's largest ancient parkland, Hampstead Heath, which includes the well-known and legally-protected view of the London skyline from Parliament Hill. The Heath, a major place for Londoners to walk and "take the air", has three open-air public swimming ponds; one for men, one for women, and one for mixed bathing, which were originally reservoirs for drinking water and the sources of the River Fleet. The bridge pictured is known locally as 'The Red Arches' or 'The Viaduct', built in fruitless anticipation of residential building on the Heath in the 19th century.

Local activities include major open-air concerts on summer Saturday evenings on the slopes below Kenwood House, book and poetry readings, fun fairs on the lower reaches of the Heath, period harpsichord recitals at Fenton House, Hampstead Scientific Society and Hampstead Photographic Society.

The largest employer in Hampstead is the Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, but many small businesses based in the area have international significance. George Martin's AIR recording studios, in converted church premises in Lyndhurst Road, is a current example, as Jim Henson's Creature Shop was, before it relocated to California.

The area has some remarkable architecture, such as the Isokon building in Lawn Road, a Grade I listed experiment in collective housing, once home to Agatha Christie, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson and Walter Gropius. It was recently restored by Notting Hill Housing Trust.

Churches[link]

• Christ Church – Hampstead Square, NW3 1AB^[5]
• St. Andrew's United Reformed Church, Frognal Lane, NW3 7DY^[6]
• St John-at-Hampstead – Church Row, NW3 6UU^[7]
• St John's Downshire Hill – Downshire Hill, NW3 1NU^[8]
• St Luke's – Kidderpore Avenue, NW3 7SU^[9][10]
• St Mary's Chapel – 4 Holly Place, NW3 6QU^[11][12]
• Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel

Museums[link]

• Fenton House – Hampstead Grove, Hampstead, London, NW3 6SP^[13]
• Freud Museum – 20 Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead, London, NW3 5SX^[14]
• Burgh House & Hampstead Museum – New End Square, Hampstead, London, NW3 1LT^[15]
• Keats House Museum – Keats Grove, Hampstead, London, NW3 2RR^[16]
• Kenwood House – Hampstead Lane, Hampstead, London, NW3 7JR^[17]

Theatres and cinemas[link]

• Everyman Cinema – 5 Holly Bush Vale, Hampstead, London, NW3 6TX^[18]
• Hampstead Theatre – Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, London, NW3 3EU^[19]
• New End Theatre – 27 New End, Vale of Heath, Hampstead, London, NW3 1JD^[20]
• Pentameters Theatre – 28 Heath Street, Hampstead, London, NW3 6TE^[21]

Public houses[link]

Hampstead is well known for its traditional pubs, such as the Holly Bush, gas-lit until recently;^[22][23] the Spaniard's Inn, Spaniard's Road, where highwayman Dick Turpin took refuge; The Old Bull and Bush in North End; and The Old White Bear (formerly Ye Olde White Bear).^[24] Jack Straw's Castle on the edge of the Heath near Whitestone Pond at the brow of the Heath has now been converted into residential flats. Others include:

• The Flask – 14 Flask Walk, Hampstead, London, NW3 1HE ^[25]
• Freemasons Arms – 32 Downshire Hill, Hampstead, London, NW3 1NT^[26]
• The Duke of Hamilton – 23–25 New End, Hampstead, London, NW3 1JD^[27]
• The Horseshoe (formerly The Three Horseshoes) – 28 Heath Street, Hampstead, London, NW3 6TE^[28]
• King William IV (aka KW4) – 77 Hampstead High Street, Hampstead, London, NW3 1RE^[29]
• The Magdala – 2a South Hill Park, Hampstead, London, NW3 2SB^[30][31]
• The Garden Gate – 14 South End Road, Hampstead, London, NW3 2QE^[32]

Restaurants[link]

Hampstead has an eclectic mix of restaurants ranging from French to Thai. Notable and longstanding are La Gaffe, Gaucho Grill, Jin Kichi, Tip Top Thai, Al Casbah, Le Cellier du Midi and CrimeaJewel. After over a decade of controversy and legal action from local residents, McDonald's was finally allowed to open in Hampstead in 1992, after winning its right in court, and agreeing to a previously unprecedented re-design of the shop front, reducing the conspicuousness of its facade and logo.^[33]

Schools[link]

Film locations[link]

Hampstead's rural feel lends itself for use on film; a notable example being The Killing of Sister George (1968) starring Beryl Reid and Susannah York. The opening sequence has Reid's character June wandering through the streets and alleyways of Hampstead, west of Heath Street, around The Mount Square. The Marquis of Granby pub, in which June drinks at the opening of the film, was actually The Holly Bush,^[22] at 22 Holly Mount. Another example is The Collector (1965), starring Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar, where the kidnap sequence is set in Mount Vernon.

The 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth, starring Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie, was shot, in large part, in Hampstead Heath.

Some scenes from An American Werewolf in London (1981) are shot on Hampstead Heath, Well Walk and Haverstock Hill. Harry and Judith are killed in Hampstead Heath, behind the Priors on East Heath Road. Before David kills them, Harry and Judith get out of the taxi on East Heath Road at Well Walk.

More recently Kenwood House is the set of the "film-within-the-film" scene of Notting Hill (1999). Outdoor scenes in The Wedding Date (2005), starring Debra Messing, feature Parliament Hill Fields on the Heath, overlooking west London. Parliament Hill also features in Notes on a Scandal (2006) together with the nearby areas of Gospel Oak and Camden Town. Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) features the old Hampstead Town Hall on Haverstock Hill. The cult film Scenes of a Sexual Nature (2006) was filmed entirely on Hampstead Heath, covering various picturesque locations such as the 'Floating Gardens' and Kenwood House.

A musical specifically focusing on the area, Les Bicyclettes de Belsize (1968), tells the story of a young man's cycle journey around Hampstead. After crashing into a billboard poster, he falls in love with the fashion model depicted on it.

Transport[link]

Hampstead underground station

Hampstead has a major bus terminus known as Hampstead Heath located in South End Green. Its most frequent service is Route 24 which for over 100 years has linked this area with the West End, Victoria and Grosvenor Road in Pimlico. Bus routes that currently serve Hampstead are: 24 46 168 210 268 603 C11 and N5.

Nearest tube stations[link]

The nearest London Underground stations are Hampstead and Belsize Park on the Northern Line and Swiss Cottage on the Jubilee Line. The stations are within Travelcard Zone 2. Hampstead is the boundary with Travelcard Zone 3. Construction of North End tube station was started but not completed.

Nearest railway station[link]

Hampstead Heath railway station is situated by South End Green while Finchley Road & Frognal station is on the western side of Hampstead. Both stations are part of the London Overground network.

Nearest hospital[link]

• Royal Free Hospital

Nearest places[link]

Notable residents[link]

Hampstead has long been known as a residence of the intelligentsia, including writers, composers, ballerinas and intellectuals, actors, artists and architects — many of whom created a bohemian community in the late 19th century. After 1917, and again in the 1930s, it became base to a community of avant garde artists and writers and was host to a number of émigrés and exiles from the Russian Revolution and Nazi Europe.

Cultural references[link]

• Hampstead is referred to in the song "Young Conservatives" by The Kinks and in "Cross Eyed Mary" by Jethro Tull.
• Hampstead is referenced in a Monty Python sketch where a famous playwright (with a northern accent and working-class look) sarcastically remarks to his son (who works in a mine): "Hampstead wasn't good enough for you, eh? You had to go poncin' off to Barnsley".
• Hampstead is referred to in the hit Bollywood film "Desi Boyz".

Local newspapers[link]

The local newspapers, as of 2011, are the Camden New Journal and the Hampstead and Highgate Express.

See also[link]

London portal

• The Bishops Avenue

References and notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hampstead

• Hampstead Village Online
• London's Literary Village
• Hampstead and Marylebone by G. E. Mitton at Project Gutenberg
• The Heath and Hampstead Society
• The Hampstead Scientific Society
• The Hampstead Horticultural Society
• Camden Council
• Hampstead Theatre
• London/Hampstead travel guide from Wikitravel

v t e London Borough of Camden Districts Belsize Park Bloomsbury Brondesbury Camden Town Chalk Farm Covent Garden Cricklewood Dartmouth Park Fitzrovia Fortune Green Frognal Gospel Oak Hampstead Haverstock Highgate Holborn Kentish Town Kilburn Kings Cross Primrose Hill Regent's Park Saffron Hill St Giles St Pancras Somers Town South Hampstead Swiss Cottage Tufnell Park West Hampstead Attractions Bloomsbury Theatre British Library British Museum BT Tower Camden Arts Centre Dickens House Museum Dominion Theatre Donmar Warehouse Foundling Museum Fenton House Freud Museum Highgate Cemetery Keats House Kenwood House The Jewish Museum Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology Roundhouse Shaftesbury Theatre Sir John Soane's Museum Wellcome Collection West End theatre Street markets Camden Market Queen's Crescent Market Parks and open spaces Bloomsbury Square Hampstead Heath Kilburn Grange Park Lincoln's Inn Fields Phoenix Garden Primrose Hill Regents Park Russell Square Waterlow Park Constituencies Hampstead and Kilburn Holborn and St. Pancras Tube and rail stations Belsize Park Camden Road railway station Camden Town Chalk Farm Chancery Lane Euston Euston railway station Euston Square Finchley Road Finchley Road & Frognal railway station Goodge Street Gospel Oak railway station Hampstead Hampstead Heath railway station Holborn Kentish Town Kentish Town West railway station Kilburn High Road railway station King's Cross St. Pancras London King's Cross railway station Mornington Crescent Russell Square St Pancras railway station South Hampstead railway station Swiss Cottage Warren Tube West Hampstead West Hampstead railway station West Hampstead Thameslink railway station Other topics People Public art Schools Category Commons

The Right Honourable The Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare
Member of Parliament for Louth (Lincolnshire)
In office 8 December 1969 – 10 October 1974
Preceded by	Cyril Osborne
Succeeded by	Michael Brotherton
Personal details
Born	(1940-04-15) 15 April 1940 (age 72) London
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Mary Doreen Weeden
Children	The Hon. William Harold (b.1972) and The Hon. James Howard Archer (b.1974)
Occupation	Politician, author
Religion	Church of England[1]
Website	www.jeffreyarcher.co.uk

Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is a best-selling English author and former politician whose political career ended with his conviction and subsequent imprisonment (2001–03) for perjury and perverting the course of justice.

Alongside his literary work, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–74), and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–86). He was made a life peer in 1992.

Early life[link]

Background[link]

Jeffrey Howard Archer was born in the City of London Maternity Hospital. He was two weeks old when his family moved to the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, where he spent most of his early life. He has an older brother born out of wedlock, also originally called Jeffrey, who was put up for adoption at an early age. The brother assumed the name David Brown and only discovered his relationship to Archer in 1980, even though Archer already apparently knew this, according to the journalist Michael Crick. His father, William (died 1956^[2]), was sixty-four when Archer was born. In 1951, he won a scholarship to Wellington School, in Somerset (not to be confused with the public school Wellington College, which is possible from the ambiguous biography in Archer's earlier books). At this time his mother, Lola, contributed a column "Over the teacups" to the local press in Weston-super-Mare and wrote about the adventures of her son 'Tuppence'; this caused Archer to be the victim of bullying while at Wellington School.^[3]

After Archer left school passing O-levels in English Literature, Art, and History, he worked in a number of jobs, including training with the army and for the police. This lasted only for a few months, but he fared better as a Physical Education teacher; first at Vicar's Hill, a Prep School in Hampshire where he taught fencing amongst other sports, later at the more prestigious independent school Dover College in Kent. As a teacher he was popular with pupils and was reported by some to have had good motivational skills, helping to instil personal confidence in the less confident.

Oxford[link]

Archer studied for three years, gaining an academic qualification in teaching awarded by the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. The course was based at Brasenose College, Oxford, although Archer was never registered as an undergraduate student of the College. There have been claims that Archer provided false evidence of his academic qualifications, for instance the apparent citing of an American institution which was actually a bodybuilding club, in gaining admission to the course.^[3][4] It is also alleged that he provided false statements about three non-existent A level passes and a US degree.^[5] His website includes references to his Oxford 'Principal', yet omits that he was not a full undergraduate at Oxford.^[6]

While in Oxford he was successful in athletics, competing in sprinting and hurdling. It is unclear whether he was in fact eligible to compete in Varsity matches, not being a member of the College.^[5] Television coverage survives of him making false starts in a 1964 sprint race, but despite the rules Archer was not disqualified. He gained a blue in athletics and went on to run for England once and also competed for Great Britain once and was successful.

Even as a student Jeffrey Archer was plagued with rumours of financial wrongdoing - fellow undergraduates were amazed that he owned houses and cars with personalised number plates while working part time as an Oxfam fund raiser.^[7]

He raised money for the charity Oxfam, obtaining the support of The Beatles in a charity fundraising drive. The band accepted his invitation to visit the senior common room of Brasenose College, where they were photographed with Archer and dons of the college, although they did not play there. The critic Sheridan Morley, then a student at Merton, was present and recalled the occasion:

At the interval I went to the toilet, and there beside me was Ringo Starr. He asked if I knew this Jeffrey Archer bloke. I said everyone in Oxford was trying to work out who he was. Ringo said: 'He strikes me as a nice enough fella, but he's the kind of bloke who would bottle your piss and sell it.'^[8]

It was during this period that Archer met his wife, Mary Weeden, at that time studying chemistry at St Anne's College, Oxford. They married in July 1966. Mary went on to specialise in solar power.

Charity fundraising[link]

After leaving Oxford, he continued as a charity fundraiser, working for the National Birthday Trust, a medical charity. He also began a career in politics, serving as a Conservative councillor on the Greater London Council during 1967–70.

One organisation Archer worked for, the United Nations Association, alleged discrepancies in his claims for expenses, and details appeared in the press in a scrambled form. Archer brought a defamation action against the former Conservative member of parliament Humphry Berkeley, chairman of the UNA, as the source of the allegations. The case was settled out of court after three years. Berkeley tried to persuade Conservative Central Office that Archer was unsuitable as a parliamentary candidate, but a selection meeting at Louth disregarded any doubts.^[3]

Archer set up his own fund-raising company, Arrow Enterprises, in 1969. That same year he opened an art gallery, the Archer Gallery, in Mayfair. The gallery specialised in modern art, including pieces by the acclaimed sculptor and painter Leon Underwood. The gallery ultimately lost money, however, and Archer sold it two years later.

Writing career[link]

His first book, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, was picked up by the literary agent Deborah Owen and published first in the US, then eventually in Britain in the Autumn of 1976. The book was an instant success and Archer avoided bankruptcy, never being legally declared bankrupt. A BBC Television adaptation of the book was broadcast in 1990, and a radio adaptation was aired on BBC Radio 4 in the early 1980s.

Kane and Abel proved to be his best-selling work, reaching number one on the New York Times bestsellers list. It was made into a television mini-series by CBS in 1985, starring Peter Strauss and Sam Neill. The following year, Granada TV screened a ten-part adaptation of another Archer bestseller, First Among Equals, which told the story of four men and their quest to become Prime Minister.^[9]

Archer states he spends considerable time writing and re-writing each book. He goes abroad to write the first draft, working in blocks of two-hours at a time, then writes anything up to seventeen further drafts. It has been suggested that his books require extensive editing by others to make them readable.^[10][11]

In 2011, Archer published the first of five books in The Clifton Chronicles, which follow the life of Harry Clifton from his birth in 1920, through to the finale in 2020. Only Time Will Tell tells the story of Harry from 1920 through to 1940 and was published in the UK on 12 May 2011. In March 2011 he visited New Zealand as part of a promotional tour. His stops included an interview on Radio Live with hosts Willie Jackson and former-disgraced-MP John Tamihere.^[12]

Political career[link]

Member of Parliament[link]

At 29, he was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lincolnshire constituency of Louth, holding the seat for the Conservative Party in a by-election on 4 December 1969. Archer beat Ian Gow to the selection after winning over a substantial proportion of younger members at the selection meeting. The national party had concerns about Archer's selection, but these were dismissed by the local Conservative association after representatives made a journey to party headquarters to discuss the matter. Archer's campaign colour was a dayglo orange/pink with a blue arrow; the political parties in Lincolnshire had not yet abandoned local colours, which were different from the party national colours.

Louth constituency had three key areas: Louth, Cleethorpes, and Immingham. During his time as a Member of Parliament, Archer was a regular at the Immingham Conservative Club in the most working-class part of the constituency.

He took part in the "Kennedy Memorial Test" in 1970, a 50 mile running/walking race from Louth to Skegness and back. This raised funds for the building of Louth Swimming Pool, which was subsequently opened by his wife in March 1974.

In Parliament, Archer was on the left of the Conservative Party, rebelling against some of his party's policies. He urged free TV licences for the elderly and was against museum charges. Archer voted against restoring capital punishment, saying it was barbaric and obscene. In 1971, he employed David Mellor, then needing money for his bar finals, to deal with his correspondence. He tipped Mellor to reach the cabinet. In an interview Archer said, "I hope we don't return to extremes. I'm what you might call centre-right but I've always disliked the right wing as much as I've disliked the left wing."^[13]

In 1974, he was a casualty of a fraudulent investment scheme involving Aquablast, a Canadian company, a debacle which lost Archer his first fortune.^[3] Fearing imminent bankruptcy, he stood down as an MP at the October 1974 general election. By this time the Archers were living in a large five-bedroom house in The Boltons, an exclusive street in South Kensington. As a result of the Aquablast affair, they were forced to sell the house and move into more modest accommodation for a while.

Return to politics: Deputy party chairman[link]

Archer's political career revived once he became known for his novels and as a popular speaker among the Conservative grassroots. He was made deputy chairman of the Conservative Party by Margaret Thatcher in September 1985. Norman Tebbit, party chairman, had misgivings over the appointment, as did other prominent members of the party, including William Whitelaw and Ted Heath. During his tenure as deputy chairman, Archer was responsible for a number of embarrassing moments, including his statement, made during a live radio interview, that many young, unemployed people were simply unwilling to find work. At the time of Archer's comment, unemployment in the UK stood at a record 3.4 million. Archer was later forced to apologise for the remark, suggesting that his words had been "taken out of context".

Archer resigned in October 1986 due to a scandal caused by an article in The News of the World, which led on the story "Tory boss Archer pays vice-girl" and claimed Archer had paid Monica Coghlan, a prostitute, £2,000 through an intermediary at Victoria Station to go abroad.^[3]

[edit] Daily Star libel case

Compounding on this story, the Daily Star alleged that Archer had paid for sex with Coghlan.^[3] Archer responded by suing the Daily Star. The case came to court in July 1987. Explaining the payment to Coghlan as the action of a philanthropist rather than that of a guilty man, Archer won the case and was awarded £500,000 damages. Archer stated he would donate the money to charity. This case would ultimately result in Archer's final exit from front-line politics some years later.

The description the judge (Mr Justice Caulfield) gave of Mrs Archer in his jury instructions included: "Remember Mary Archer in the witness-box. Your vision of her probably will never disappear. Has she elegance? Has she fragrance? Would she have, without the strain of this trial, radiance? How would she appeal? Has she had a happy married life? Has she been able to enjoy, rather than endure, her husband Jeffrey?" The judge then went on to say of Jeffrey Archer, "Is he in need of cold, unloving, rubber-insulated sex in a seedy hotel round about quarter to one on a Tuesday morning after an evening at the Caprice?"^[14] By this time, according to the journalist Adam Raphael, Jeffrey and Mary Archer were, in fact, living largely separate lives. The editor of the Daily Star, Lloyd Turner, was sacked six weeks after the trial by the paper's owner Lord Stevens of Ludgate.^[15]

Archer lost a libel case after accusations in his book Twist in the Tale, portraying Major General James Oluleye to be a thief. (Oluleye is the author of Architecturing a Destiny and Military Leadership in Nigeria.)

Kurdish charity and peerage[link]

When Saddam Hussein suppressed Kurdish uprisings in 1991, Archer, with the Red Cross, set up the charity Simple Truth, a fundraising campaign on behalf of the Kurds."^[16] In May 1991, Archer organised a charity pop concert, starring Rod Stewart, Paul Simon, Sting and Gloria Estefan, who all performed free. Archer claimed that his charity had raised £57,042,000, though it was later revealed that only £3 million came from the Simple Truth concert and appeal, the rest from aid projects sponsored by the British and other governments, with significant amounts pledged before the concert.^[16] The charity would later result in further controversy.

Having been previously rejected,^[16] Archer was made a life peer in 1992 as Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare, of Mark in the County of Somerset. Prime minister John Major recommended him largely because of Archer's role in aid to the Kurds.^[16]

Political statements in 1990s[link]

In a speech at the 1993 Conservative conference, Archer urged then Home Secretary Michael Howard, to "Stand and deliver," saying: "Michael, I am sick and tired of being told by old people that they are frightened to open the door, they're frightened to go out at night, frightened to use the parks and byways where their parents and grandparents walked with freedom ... We say to you: stand and deliver!". He then attacked violent films and urged tougher prison conditions to prevent criminals from re-offending. He criticised the role of "do-gooders" and finished off the speech by denouncing the opposition party's law and order policies.^[17] On Question Time in February 1994, Archer stated that 18 should be the age of consent for homosexuality, as opposed to 21, which it was at the time. Archer has also consistently been an opponent of a return to capital punishment.

Allegations of insider dealings[link]

In January 1994, Mary Archer, then a director of Anglia Television, attended a directors' meeting at which an impending takeover of Anglia Television by MAI, which owned Meridian Broadcasting, was discussed.^[18] The following day, Jeffrey Archer bought 50,000 shares in Anglia Television, acting on behalf of a friend, Broosk Saib.^[19] Shortly after this, it was announced publicly that Anglia Television would be taken over by MAI. As a result the shares jumped in value, whereupon Archer sold them on behalf of his friend for a profit of £77,219.^[18] The arrangements he made with the stockbrokers meant he did not have to pay at the time of buying the shares.^[15]

An inquiry was launched by the Stock Exchange into possible insider trading. The Department of Trade and Industry, headed by Michael Heseltine, announced that Archer would not be prosecuted.^[18] Archer later claimed that he had been "exonerated", but the DTI inquiry had merely stated that there was insufficient evidence to bring a prosecution.

London mayoral candidacy and perjury trial[link]

In 1999, Archer had been selected by the Conservative Party as candidate for the London mayoral election of 2000, when, on 21 November, the News of the World published allegations that he had committed perjury in his 1987 libel case. Archer withdrew his candidacy the following day.^[20]

The basis of the allegations originated with Ted Francis, a friend who claimed Archer owed him money, and Angela Peppiatt, Archer's former personal assistant. They stated that Archer had fabricated an alibi in the 1987 trial and were concerned that Archer was unsuitable to stand as Mayor of London. Peppiatt had kept a diary of Archer's movements, which contradicted evidence given during the 1987 trial.^[21]

After the allegations, Archer was disowned by his party. Conservative leader William Hague explained: "This is the end of politics for Jeffrey Archer. I will not tolerate such behaviour in my party."^[22] On 4 February 2000, Archer was expelled from the party for five years.^[20]

Trial[link]

On 26 September 2000, he was charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice during the 1987 libel trial.^[20] Simultaneously, Archer starred in a production of his courtroom play The Accused, staged at London's Theatre Royal Haymarket. The play concerned the court trial of an alleged murderer and assigned the role of jury to the audience, which would vote on the guilt of Archer's character at the end of each performance.^[23]

The perjury trial began on 30 May 2001, a month after Monica Coghlan's death. Archer never spoke during the trial, though his wife Mary again gave evidence as she had done during the 1987 trial. When Archer's mother died on 11 July, aged 87, he was released for the day to attend the funeral.^[24] On 19 July 2001, Archer was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at the 1987 trial. He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment by Mr Justice Potts. Ted Francis was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice.

Jail[link]

Archer was sent to Belmarsh Prison, a Category "A" prison, but was moved to Wayland Prison, a Category "C" prison in Norfolk on 9 August 2001. Despite automatically qualifying as a category "D" prisoner given it was a first conviction and he did not pose serious risk of harm to the public, his status as such was suspended pending a police investigation into allegations about his Kurdish charity. He was then transferred to North Sea Camp, an open prison, in October 2001. From there he was let out to work at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln, and was allowed occasional home visits. Media reports claimed he had been abusing this privilege by attending lunches with friends, including former Education Secretary Gillian Shephard and in September 2002 he was transferred to a Category "B" prison, Lincoln, for a month, before returning to a Category "D" prison, Hollesley Bay in Suffolk.

While in prison, he wrote the three-volume memoir A Prison Diary, with volumes fashioned after Dante's Divine Comedy and named after the first three prisons he was kept in. During his imprisonment, Archer was visited by a number of high-profile friends, including the actor Donald Sinden^[25] and the performer Barry Humphries.^[26][27]

In October 2002, Archer repaid the Daily Star the £500,000 damages he had received in 1987, as well as legal costs and interest of £1.3 million.^[28] That month, he was suspended from Marylebone Cricket Club for seven years.^[29]

On 21 July 2003, Archer was released on licence, after serving half of his sentence, from HMP Hollesley Bay, Suffolk.^[30]

Archer can keep his peerage as it is a life peerage rather than "an honour under the Crown". An Act of Parliament would be required to enable such a change to someone's peerage.^[31] As he is no longer under the whip of the Conservative Party, Archer currently sits as a non-affiliated member in the House of Lords.

Kurdish aid controversy[link]

In July 2001, shortly after being jailed for perjury, Archer's name was again shrouded in controversy, when Scotland Yard began investigating allegations that millions of pounds had disappeared from Archer's Kurdish charity.^[16][32] In 1991, Archer had claimed to have raised £57,042,000.^[16] In 1992, the Kurdish Disaster Fund had written to Archer, complaining: "You must be concerned that the Kurdish refugees have seen hardly any of the huge sums raised in the west in their name." Kurdish groups claimed little more than £250,000 had been received by groups in Iraq. Archer then had gone to Iraq on a fact-finding mission, where his chant of "Long Live Kurdistan" was mis-translated as "Bastard, Devilish Kurdistan."^[16]

A British Red Cross-commissioned KPMG audit of the cash showed no donations were handled by Archer and any misappropriation was "unlikely". But KPMG could find no evidence to support Archer's claims to have raised £31.5 million from overseas governments. The police said they would launch a "preliminary assessment of the facts" from the audit but were not investigating the Simple Truth fund.^[33]

Recent years[link]

Many of Archer's friends remained loyal. He and Lady Archer were guests at the memorial service for Norris McWhirter at Saint Martin-in-the-Fields on Thursday 7 October 2004 where they sat in the same pew as Gregory Lauder-Frost, the former head of the Conservative Monday Club, and in front of Lady Thatcher, who embraced Lady Archer.^{[citation needed]}

In 2004, the government of Equatorial Guinea alleged that Archer was one of the financiers of the failed 2004 coup d'état attempt against them, citing bank details and telephone records as evidence.^[34] In 2009, Archer said: “I am completely relaxed about it. Mr Mann [the English mercenary leader of the coup] has made clear that it’s nothing to do with me.’’ In 2011 the English mercenary Simon Mann, jailed in Equatorial Guinea for his part in leading the failed 2004 coup d'état attempt told The Daily Telegraph that his forthcoming book Cry Havoc would reveal “the financial involvement of a controversial and internationally famous member of the British House of Lords in the plot, backed up by banking records”. He claimed that documents from the bank accounts in Guernsey of two companies Mann used as vehicles for organising the coup, showed a 'J H Archer' paying $135,000 into one of the firms.^[35]

On 26 February 2006, on Andrew Marr's Sunday AM programme, Archer said he had no interest in returning to front-line politics: he would pursue his writing instead.^[36] He has confirmed this when speaking at the Emmanuel College Politics Society and the Christ's Politics Society at the University of Cambridge.

Personal life[link]

In 1979, Archer purchased the Old Vicarage, Grantchester, a house associated with the poet Rupert Brooke. He also began to hold shepherd's pie and Krug parties for prominent people at his London apartment, which overlooks the Houses of Parliament.^[3]

While he was a witness in the Aquablast case in Toronto in 1977, Archer was accused of taking three suits from a department store, an accusation he denied for many years. However, in the late 1990s, Archer finally acknowledged that he had indeed taken the suits, although he claimed that at the time he had not realised he had left the shop.^[3] No charges were brought.

Archer in fiction[link]

Archer was satirically portrayed as a misunderstood secret agent, saviour of Britain and mankind and "overall thoroughly good chap", by actor Damian Lewis in the BBC drama Jeffrey Archer: The Truth (2002),^[37] which received strong reviews. Script writer Guy Jenkin explained that "my Jeffrey Archer is the man who has frequently saved Britain over the last 30 years. He's beloved of all women he comes across, all men, all dogs – he's a superhero".

Archer's life was parodied in November 2004 on BBC Radio 4 on an episode of the first series of 15 Minute Musical entitled "Jeffrey! The Operetta", a Gilbert and Sullivan-style spoof.

In There's No Place Like a Home, a comedy play by Paul Elliot, the residents of a retirement home for actors and actresses, trying to prevent its closure, kidnap Archer to use the ransom money to keep their home open.

The satirical magazine Private Eye refers to Archer as 'Jeffrey Archole' or 'Lord Archole' and characterises him as a liar and fantasist. On occasion it has published spoofs of Archer's fiction, describing a thinly-veiled heroic version of himself called 'Jeremy Bowman'. Eye "diarist" Craig Brown mocked Mary Archer's support for him in his version of her writings: "I am the chairman of the Ethics Committee at Addenbrookes hospital, and well used to coming down hard on those who lie incompetently."

List of works[link]

Kane and Abel series[link]

• Shall We Tell the President? (1977)
• Kane and Abel (1980)
• The Prodigal Daughter (1982)

Prison diaries (non-fiction)[link]

• 1. Hell – Belmarsh (2002)
• 2. Purgatory – Wayland (2003)
• 3. Heaven – North Sea Camp (2004)

Other novels[link]

• Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1976)
• First Among Equals (1984)
• A Matter of Honour (1986)
• As the Crow Flies (1991)
• Honour Among Thieves (1993)
• The Fourth Estate (1996)
• The Eleventh Commandment (1998)
• Sons of Fortune (2002)
• False Impression (2005)
• The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot With Francis J. Moloney (2007)
• A Prisoner of Birth (2008)
• Paths of Glory (2009)
• Only Time Will Tell (2011)
• The Sins of the Father (2012)
• Best Kept Secret (March 2013)

Plays[link]

• Beyond Reasonable Doubt (1987)
• Exclusive (1989)
• The Accused (2000)

Short stories/Collections[link]

• A Quiver Full of Arrows (1980)
• A Twist in the Tale (1989)
• Fools, Knaves, and Heroes: Great Political Short Stories Editor, Introduction. (1991)
• Twelve Red Herrings (1994)
• The Collected Short Stories (1997)
• To Cut a Long Story Short (2000)
• Cat O'Nine Tales (2006)
• And Thereby Hangs a Tale (2010)
• The New Collected Short Stories(2011)

For children[link]

• The First Miracle (1980)
• By Royal Appointment (1980)
• Willy Visits the Square World (1980)
• Willy and the Killer Kipper (1981)

Clifton Chronicles[link]

• Only Time Will Tell (2011)
• The Sins of the Father (2012)
• Best Kept Secret (2013)

See also[link]

• Jonathan Aitken

References[link]