Jeffrey Archer liked attention. So dying in the middle of the Conservative Party conference, on the eve of the publication of his final novel and just as he was about to begin his last promotional campaign, was exquisite Jeffrey Archer timing. It was the only topic of conversation on the day before Kemi Badenoch’s leader’s speech.
He liked surprises, and no one expected him to die so suddenly. He was in terrific form right up to the end. On Friday he texted me asking for Ed Balls’s number. He was in full campaign mode to promote Adam & Eve, his final novel, and wanted to get himself on the Osborne/Balls podcast. As always, he was ruthlessly focused and relentless, like a Napoleonic general in pursuit of attention — for himself, his book and, above all, his readers.
