Prostitute in Archer case died penniless | Daily Mail Online Next Prostitute in Archer case died penniless The prostitute at the centre of the Jeffrey Archer libel trial, who was killed in a car crash weeks before the Tory peer was jailed, died penniless. Monica Coghlan became a household name over her dalliance with Lord Archer. His attempts to wriggle out of allegations that he had sex with her while he was deputy chairman of the Conservative Party finally led to his downfall. She was killed in April when a hijacked Jaguar smashed into her Ford Fiesta in Huddersfield, York-shire. Now a Grant of Probate lodged in the District Probate Registry in Manchester and the High Court in London, has revealed that Miss Coghlan, 49, died intestate. Her assets at death were barely above nil but she left no debts. Last night her brother, Tommy Coghlan, told how bankruptcy several years ago took everything, including her respectable bungalow in Rochdale, Lancashire, paid for by the proceeds of prostitution in London as an 'Inter-City' vice girl.

After the bankruptcy, she was reduced to living in a tiny rented two-up, two-down, red-brick terrace house in Rochdale with her young son Robin, whose West Indian father left her. She worked as a cleaner and in a bingo hall to make ends meet. Mr Coghlan said: 'She lost the lot, but didn't owe anyone a penny when she died. She was too proud to sponge off anyone. We sorted out the gas, electricity and council tax bills to put everything in order. 'Even though the bankruptcy was later discharged, she was cleaned out completely, leaving her no money to speak of. 'Of course, it was a great shock to us all when she died. She'd gone on a downhill path after the bankruptcy, but she got by and was totally devoted to her son. Robin is coping and coming to terms with the death of his mother. He's doing well at school and wants to go to university to study art and drama. 'He's a lovely lad and we're all behind him to make sure he succeeds and builds a career. He'll do it.

His mum would be proud of him, as she was when she was alive.' Archer was jailed earlier this year for four years for perverting the course of justice and for perjury when he won £500,000 at his 1987 libel trial. BBC NEWS | UK | Timeline: Stranger than fiction Tuesday, 8 October, 2002, 14:09 GMT 15:09 UK Timeline: Stranger than fiction Lord Archer: Politician, author and businessman Lord Archer's life is a tale of success and scandal. BBC News Online looks back over the recent ups and downs of the peer's career. 1987: Libel case In October 1986 a tabloid scandal broke. Newspaper reports alleged that Jeffrey Archer, then deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, had been seeing a prostitute. Lord Archer vigorously denied he had slept with the woman whose name was Monica Coghlan. He sued the Daily Star newspaper for libel and won. He was awarded a spectacular �500,000 in damages.

Monica Coghlan: Her word against Lord Archer's But he resigned his post as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party as a result of the scandal. A letter written by Lord Archer's friend Ted Francis, which gave Lord Archer an alibi for a night in September 1986, was never used during the 1987 trial. But this letter became significant 12 years later when Mr Francis admitted its contents were false. 1992: Peerage Jeffrey Archer was made a life peer as a reward for his services to the Conservative Party. 1994: Anglia shares In January, acting on behalf of a friend, Lord Archer bought 50,000 Anglia shares shortly before a takeover made the share price soar. He then sold the shares at a profit of more than �70,000. Lord Archer has always maintained that he made no personal profit from the deal. However, his wife Mary Archer was a director of the company at the time, which raised the prospect of insider dealing. In July Lord Archer was told that no insider trading charges would be brought - but his lawyers admitted he had made a mistake.

Previously tipped to become Tory party chairman, Lord Archer did not feature in a summer cabinet reshuffle. 1999: Scandal resurfaces Lord Archer launched his campaign to become London mayor in July. By this time Ted Francis had fallen out with Lord Archer. He said he "disapproved of the idea of Jeffrey Archer becoming Mayor of London". In November Mr Francis told the News of the World that Lord Archer had asked him to provide a false alibi ahead of his Daily Star libel hearing in July 1987. Mr Francis said he did this believing it was to help save Lord Archer's marriage. He said Lord Archer had told him he was really with his former assistant Andrina Colquhoun on the night in question. This is the end of politics for Jeffrey Archer. I will not tolerate behaviour like this in my party. William Hague, 1999 In the resulting furore Lord Archer stood down as candidate for London mayor. He released a statement in which he admitted that he had asked Mr Francis to cover for him. The Conservative Party, keen to eradicate any hint of sleaze from its ranks, removed the whip from Lord Archer and announced it would refer aspects of the allegations against him to its ethics and integrity committee.

Then party leader William Hague said: "This is the end of politics for Jeffrey Archer. I will not tolerate behaviour like this in my party." The Daily Star demanded the return of �500,000 in damages - plus interest. The paper said that although Ted Francis's statement was never used in court during the 1987 case, knowledge it had been fabricated could have affected the outcome. As a result of the revelations the police began a perjury investigation. 2000: Imitating life In February Lord Archer was expelled from the Conservative Party for five years over the scandal. Lord Archer bounced back in September when he made his stage debut in a peculiar blurring of fiction and reality. He appeared at the Theatre Royal Windsor as the lead character in The Accused, a courtroom drama. The Accused: Lord Archer takes centre stage Lord Archer played a prominent man defending himself in a court case. The play focused on whether or not his character had lied about a sexual relationship. At the end the audience got to vote on whether he was guilty. In December Lord Archer was back in a real court, pleading not guilty to the charges against him as the trial date is set for May the following year.

April 2001: Fatal accident In a bizarre twist the woman at the centre of the original libel case was killed in a car accident two weeks before the start of the new trial. Monica Coghlan died when the car she was driving was hit by another vehicle, driven by a fleeing armed robber. May 2001: Trial opens As Jeffrey Howard Archer the 61-year-old appeared at the Old Bailey facing seven charges in total - four of perverting the course of justice, two counts of perjury and one of dishonesty. Next to him in the dock was Ted Francis, facing one count of perverting the course of justice. Both men denied all the charges against them. Ted Francis: Fell out with Lord Archer As the seven-week trial got underway, the jury heard how Archer asked his secretary to make false entries in a bogus diary for the 1987 trial. Later, she told them how she bought expensive gifts for his mistress on her credit card in order to keep Archer's reputation "whiter than white". Taped telephone conversations in which the peer admits he did not have the disputed 'alibi dinner' with Ted Francis were played to the court.

July 2001: Guilty verdict Lord Archer was jailed for four years after being found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice. The jury cleared him of one count of perjury and earlier in the trial he was found not guilty of dishonesty on the direction of the judge. Calling it an "extremely distasteful case", the judge told Archer: "These charges represent as serious an offence of perjury as I have had experience of and have been able to find in the books." As Archer was taken to begin his sentence at high-security Belmarsh prison in south east London, his solicitor announced that an appeal would be launched. Mr Francis was found not guilty of the charge against him. August 2001: Jail switch Archer was initially classed as a Category D prisoner suitable for an open jail, but was graded Category C after Scotland Yard launched an inquiry into allegations that millions of pounds went missing from a fundraising campaign run by the peer. Archer was therefore transferred from Belmarsh to the category C Wayland Prison in Norfolk, rather than an open jail.

I came in very naive about heroin, cocaine and crack, I am now becoming well informed Jeffrey Archer His wife protested his innocence and after two months he was moved to North Sea Camp open prison. An audit led by accountants KPMG cleared him of mismanaging the charitable funds. He later told a newspaper that life in prison had taught him more about drugs than life outside ever did. July 2002: Appeal bid Claiming his trial was "unbalanced", Archer asked the High Court for permission to challenge his conviction or have his sentence reduced. But three judges rejected the request and said the sentence handed down had not been overly harsh because of the serious nature of Archer's crime. August 2002: Prison life Archer made his first home visit from North Sea Camp shortly before it emerged he had signed a new three-book deal with Macmillan Publishers thought to be worth about �10m after parting company with his old publishers Harper Collins. Archer was also mobbed by the media as he started a five-day-a-week job for the Theatre Royal in Lincoln. He worked on community and charity projects during the day and returned to prison at night.

He took advantage of the drive to and from the theatre to stop off for take-aways at a Chinese restaurant and traditional fish and chip shop. September 2002: Disaster strikes - again The good life was brought to an abrupt halt when the Prison Service found out he and his wife attended a party at the home of former education and employment minister Gillian Shephard without permission. Gillian Shephard said she had no idea Archer broke rules After being banned from leaving North Sea Camp during an investigation, Archer was then moved to the closed Lincoln Prison. Mary said her husband was ''extremely upset''. More trouble loomed when it emerged Archer enjoyed a restaurant meal with a senior prison officer and a woman police officer. The warder resigned - later saying it was for health reasons - while she was subject to a separate inquiry ordered by constabulary chiefs. October 2002: Payback time A High Court hearing revealed Archer had paid back more than �2.5m to the Daily Star newspaper, consisting of the original �500,000 award from the 1987 libel action plus �1.8m in further interest and costs.

Controversy raged when it emerged Archer was to publish a diary covering his first days in prison when, they revealed, he contemplated suicide. There were claims he broke Prison Service rules by identifying some of his fellow prisoners, such as the murderers he rubbed shoulders with. But Archer was said to think any punishment would be a "price worth paying" and his wife Mary said he believed his writings on drugs, paedophiles and prisoners on life sentences needed debating. The diary, which is based on the three weeks he spent in London's top security Belmarsh jail, is released on Monday and will be serialised in the Mail. Latest news The resignation of Tory deputy chairman Jeffrey Archer | From the Guardian | The Guardian The resignation of Tory deputy chairman Jeffrey Archer Leader Monday 27 October 1986 06.11 EST First published on Monday 27 October 1986 06.11 EST Share on Messenger Close So far this year the Prime Minister has lost Defence and Trade and Industry Secretaries, and now a deputy party chairman.

The affair which brought about the first two resignations, the ownership of Westland Helicopters, had more political significance than the salacious details emerging of Debbie or Monica Coghlan, but the resignation of Mr Jeffrey Archer can hardly be helpful to a party enjoying a rapid recovery in the polls and claiming to represent the best of moral values. The latest scandal has an old-fashioned atmosphere to it. It brings more echoes of Profumo than Thorpe or Parkinson. The details remain confused. Are we to understand it from Mr Archer 's statement yesterday, he received a telephone call from a woman of whom he had not heard and had not met, Ms Coghlan, claiming that she was a prostitute and that a client of hers was putting it about that Mr Archer had had an association with her. Whilst emphasising that this was untrue and that he had never met or heard of his mystery telephone caller, Mr Archer offered to pay her money to leave the country. Mr Archer considers that this was a lack of judgment, and has consequently resigned. On that rendition of events Mr Archer 's judgment was yesterday utterly correct: offering Ms Coghlan money to leave the country was an error of judgement.

So was sending an agent to Victoria Station with an envelope of banknotes for Ms Coghlan. Add in some journalistic practice which is nearer the seamier end of the private detective world and some dubious bugging of people and telephones, and you have a squalid episode in British semi public life. Mr Archer 's appointment to a senior position in the Conservative Party caused some surprise and involved some risk. After an unfortunate start, when he managed to insult and misunderstand the unemployed, he knuckled down and worked hard for no pay. It was Mr Archer 's proud boast that he visited more constituency organisations than anyone else. He went out from the centre to reassure the party workers, so important at election time, that they were being thought about and listened to. At least once a fortnight he would meet the Prime Minister and report to her the mood of the grassroots. Mrs Thatcher, reportedly, would listen most carefully. The Tories in the constituencies have strong and uncompromising views, on everything from hanging to private morality. They would not waste time on detailed analysis of the News of the World rather they would know that Mr Archer featured in the allegations, and draw their, perhaps unfair, conclusions. Mr Archer was not an elected politician.

He did not have access to state secrets, so bracketing his name, however unfairly, with a prostitute, could not be presented as a security risk. It was his association with the party rank and file, and what the party stood for that made his going essential. You cannot be the party of family life and Victorian values and then complain if you are judged by these standards. Politically, the damage should not last long, only add to the rather tawdry atmosphere which surround aspects of the Tory Party. This is shown in its more serious form in the Westland affair which the Commons debates this week. Here are issues of morality which are most certainly public. Jeffrey Archer: 'Mary would run the NHS beautifully’ - Telegraph Author interviews Jeffrey Archer: 'Mary would run the NHS beautifully’ At 72 and with a new book out, Lord Archer is unexpectedly modest – and clearly in thrall to his fragrant wife, whom he believes could soon replace Sir David Nicholson 'She is one of the cleverest people I know,’ says Lord Archer of his wife, Dame Mary Photo: Martin Pope Comments There were three people in this interview. Jeffrey Archer, me… and his wife.

Dame Mary (her title was bestowed in recognition of her services to the NHS) may not have been there in person, but she cropped up time and again. With good reason. The woman hailed as “fragrant” by Mr Justice Caulfield when she took the witness stand to defend her husband in a sensational court case in 1987, is not just tremendously accomplished; she is also, according to her husband, in the frame to replace Sir David Nicholson and head the NHS. “She is one of the cleverest people I know, even though when I fell for her (I was 24 and she 19) it was because of her beauty,” admits Archer. The uxorious author, 72, reclines on the opulent, cream-coloured sofa in his penthouse overlooking the Thames. He sounds genuinely amazed at his good fortune: a splendid woman has stuck by him through penury, perjury, adultery, scandals and prison. No wonder he sings her praises – and cared for her unstintingly when she battled bladder cancer two years ago.

This version of The Archers is no everyday tale of country folk, but an extraordinary partnership that, over 46 years, has kept husband and wife in the public eye and in (and out of) positions of influence. Dame Mary has just retired from her position as chairman of Addenbrooke’s NHS Foundation Trust Hospital after 10 years, while Archer is fresh from a triumphant book tour of India, parading his latest novel Best Kept Secret. “At every venue, I had 2,000 people in the audience – most of them women in their twenties!” he exclaims. The former Conservative Party chairman still sees a few Tory grandees on a regular basis – his old friends Peter Lilley and Malcolm Rifkind among them – as well as stars of the new generation: Sajid Javid (the Economic Secretary to the Treasury worked for Archer’s doomed London mayoral bid in 1999), Kwasi Kwarteng and Adam Afriyie.

“I don’t know Cameron and Osborne well,” he admits, “but I still know the party.” Related Articles How the British character turned colder after the war 20 Mar 2013 First and foremost, though, we talk about Mary, the widely admired scientist (her specialty is solar power). His wife left Cheltenham Ladies’ College for Oxford at 16, got a first in chemistry and became a don. At 40 she moved from lecturing to hospital administration. Once on the board of Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge, she quickly progressed to become its chairman. Under her management, the teaching hospital continuously ranked among the top in Britain, and the Care Quality Commission rated its emergency services as the “best‑performing” in the country. A woman of such abilities, I suggest, should run the entire NHS. Clearly the Government, which has made noises about replacing the embattled Sir David Nicholson following the Mid Staffs crisis, should be taking note. “You’re not the only person to say that,” Archer’s eyes twinkle. “The Government has called her in three times in the last month.” He won’t tell me what Dame Mary thinks of Nicholson.

But, as for the NHS, he grins: “She’d run it beautifully.” Archer speaks with the pride of a husband and the rather more surprising conviction of a lifelong feminist. “You’re right!” he says with delight. “There were three strong women in my life. Mary, my mother and Margaret [Thatcher].” He said recently after a visit to the ex-PM, that the Baroness hadn’t recognised him but he won’t be drawn further. “All three women had class A brains and real grit. As Mary likes to say, 'I can’t wait for the day when a mediocre woman will replace a mediocre man.’ ” No danger of either Archer being accused of mediocrity. While Dame Mary shone in the sciences, Jeffrey boasted his own glittering prizes. He was an Olympic sprinter who ran the 100 yards in under 10 seconds. He has sold more than 120 million copies of his novels worldwide. He has been an MP, a peer, and chairman of the Tory party. And his art collection includes a Picasso and a Monet (I spotted two Vuillards in the loo). He has also reinvented himself more often than any other figure in public life.

He’s had to: scandals have rocked his career from the outset. Archer’s life story, so preposterous that he himself admits “no one would believe it in a novel”, is well-known. His father William, a conman, died when Jeffrey was 11. Young Jeffrey won a scholarship to Wellington School (not, as he pretended, to the more famous Wellington College), then a place on the British Olympic team. He went to Brasenose College, Oxford – where, as Michael Crick’s warts-and-all biography of him makes clear, he briefly enrolled in a teacher training course, rather than as an undergraduate. Before the age of 30, he was elected MP for Louth, but had to resign from his seat over a bad investment that left him practically bankrupt. He turned to writing. His second novel, Kane and Abel, sold 33 million copies worldwide and earned him an entrée with the great and good. In 1986, Archer successfully sued a tabloid for libel after it published a story about him sleeping with the prostitute Monica Coghlan.

Margaret Thatcher, for whom he served as Tory party chairman, made him a peer in 1992 and he stood for Mayor of London in 1999. Then, in a plot twist he has often used himself, a bitter friend emerged from his past to query Archer’s testimony in the libel case. Ted Francis said Archer had asked him to provide a false alibi. The ensuing perjury investigation resulted in a conviction of four years. Archer served two of them. I never met Lord Archer before he was imprisoned, but I remember the bombastic persona. The man I meet now is energetic but not loud, charming but not fawning. His gaze is shrewd, his manner unexpectedly modest: he pays homage to women who are far cleverer than him – not only his wife and Baroness Thatcher but also the late Philippa Foot, the philosopher, and the comedian Sandi Toksvig. He calls himself a storyteller rather than a writer, and says he relishes his role as a popular charity auctioneer because it allows him to do some good. I’m loath to use words like atonement and redemption, but there’s something of the Prodigal Son about this new Jeffrey Archer.

I ask him about the party he loves: what does he make of David Cameron? “He’s done as good a job as he could under the circumstances. It’s an ungovernable party at present. A third of his MPs don’t believe in what he’s doing, a third think they should be in Cabinet but aren’t, and a third are only thinking about keeping their seats.” He thinks Cameron “crucifies himself over the Bullingdon thing. But if going to Eton, going to Oxford and getting a first is held against you, what kind of a country is that?” Archer says he has no time for disloyalty, condemning the “treacherous ones who’re plotting behind the PM’s back”. I ask if he means Theresa May, the Home Secretary rumoured to be setting her stall for a leadership bid. “No, she’s not a plotter,” he says. “Mary said to me the other day, 'There’s a bit of Margaret [Thatcher] in her’, and I know what she means. She’s been very impressive as Home Secretary.

Yet that is a graveyard slot for most politicians.” But nothing can dispel the gloom among Tories: “There are two Tory parties now – Ukip and the Conservatives.” Does he think Labour a shoo-in for 2015 then? “No. Ed Miliband doesn’t have it in him. David would have been better. And Ed Balls could still lose them the election: people are really scared of him. But that’s typical of Labour,” he shrugs, “the party loves losers: Tony Benn and Michael Foot are universally adored, while Tony Blair, who won them three elections, was booed at their last party conference. I like Blair. He’s a winner. But Labour is all about envy.” Envy, the dirty business of politics, progress and greed are themes that feature heavily in his new book. I enjoyed it, and tell Archer so. He beams – and is only a little crestfallen when I tell him it saw me through the flu: “You only read it because you were bed-bound?” Resilience is his trademark, though, and he immediately regales me with more anecdotes.

“On the last day on the tour in India, as I was being driven to the airport, we stopped at the lights and a little boy carrying a pile of books knocked on the window of the car. 'Do you want the latest Jeffrey Archer?’ he asked me. 'I am the latest Jeffrey Archer,’ I told him.” He roars with laughter. Jeffrey Archer’s latest incarnation may be the best one yet. 'Best Kept Secret’ (Macmillan, £20) is available from Telegraph Books for £17.99 + £1.35 p&p. Call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk Learn and talk about Jeffrey Archer, 20th-century British novelists, 21st-century British novelists, Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford, British people convicted of perverting the course of justice Thriller , drama Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English author and former politician.

Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not seek re-election after a financial scandal that left him almost bankrupt. [2] Later, after a revival of his fortunes from the royalties of his best-selling novels, he became deputy chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–1986) before resigning after another scandal, which would lead to the end of his career in elected office. [3] He was made a life peer in 1992. His political career ended with his conviction and subsequent imprisonment (2001–2003) for perjury and perverting the course of justice , which followed his second resignation. His books have sold around 330 million copies worldwide. [4] Contents 15.1 Interviews Early life and education[ edit ] Jeffrey Howard Archer was born in the City of London Maternity Hospital . He was two weeks old when his family moved to Somerset, eventually settling in the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare , [5] where Archer spent most of his early life.

[6] His father, William (died 1956), [7] was 64 years old when Jeffrey Archer was born. Early in his career, Archer gave conflicting accounts to the press of his father's supposed, but non-existent, military career. [6] William Archer was, in fact, a bigamist, fraudster and conman, who impersonated another William Archer, a deceased war medal holder. He was at different times employed as a chewing gum salesman (in New York) and mortgage broker (in London), in the latter capacity being charged at the Old Bailey for a series of fraud offences. On being allowed bail, he absconded to America under the name 'William Grimwood'. [8] [9] [10] As a boy Archer dreamt about being Bristol Rovers Football Club's captain, and still remains a fan of the club. [11] Wellington School[ edit ] In 1951, Archer won a scholarship to Wellington School , in Somerset, not Wellington College in Berkshire, as he was inclined to claim in the past. [7] At this time his mother, Lola, was employed as a journalist on Weston's local newspaper, the Weston Mercury .

[12] She wrote a weekly column entitled "Over the Teacups", and frequently wrote about Jeffrey, calling him 'Tuppence'. [13] Although Archer enjoyed the local fame this brought him, it also caused him to be the victim of bullying while at Wellington School. [3] Archer left school with O-levels in English Literature, Art, and History. He then spent a few years in a variety of different jobs, including training with the army and a short period with the Metropolitan Police Service . [3] He later worked as a physical education teacher, first at Vicar's Hill, a preparatory school in Hampshire , and later at Dover College in Kent. [6] Oxford[ edit ] In 1963 Archer was offered a place at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education to study for a Diploma of Education . The course was based in the Department, and Archer became a member of Brasenose College. There have been claims that Archer provided false evidence of his academic qualifications to Brasenose College : for instance, the apparent citing of an American institution which was actually a bodybuilding club, in gaining admission to the course.

[3] [14] It has also been alleged Archer provided false statements about three non-existent A-level passes and a U.S. university degree . [12] Although the Diploma course only lasted a year, Archer spent a total of three years at Oxford. [3] Whilst at Oxford Archer was successful in athletics, competing in sprinting and hurdling, later becoming president of the Oxford University Athletics Club. [3] Television coverage survives of him making false starts in a 1964 sprint race, but he was not disqualified. He gained a blue in athletics and went on to run for England, and once successfully competed for Great Britain. [12] 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. [15] Archer 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 Principal's lodge at Brasenose College, where they were photographed with Archer and dons of the college, [16] 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.' [17] Early career[ edit ] After leaving Oxford, Archer continued as a charity fundraiser, initially working for the National Birthday Trust, [18] a medical charity that promoted safe childbirth, before joining the United Nations Association (UNA) as its chief fundraiser. The then chairman of the UNA, Humphry Berkeley , alleged that there were numerous discrepancies in Archer's expense claims whilst he worked at the UNA. [17] [19] Around this time, Archer began a career in politics, serving as a Conservative councillor on the Greater London Council (1967–1970). [12] Archer set up his own fundraising and public relations company, Arrow Enterprises, in 1969.

[20] That same year he opened an art gallery, the Archer Gallery, in Mayfair . The gallery specialised in modern art, including pieces by the sculptor and painter Leon Underwood . The gallery ultimately lost money, however, and Archer sold it two years later. [21] Member of Parliament[ edit ] At 29, Archer 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. [12] 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, specifically relating to the UNA expenses allegations made by Humphry Berkeley, himself a former Conservative MP. Berkeley tried to persuade Conservative Central Office that Archer was unsuitable as a parliamentary candidate. [19] However, Archer brought a defamation action against Berkeley and the story was kept out of the press (though a truncated version of the story did appear in The Times). [3] The case was eventually settled out of court, with Archer agreeing to pay the legal costs of around £30,000.

[22] 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. [23] 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. [24] 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. [25] 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." [26] Financial crisis[ edit ] In 1974 Archer was a casualty of a fraudulent investment scheme involving a Canadian company called Aquablast. The debacle lost him his first fortune and left him almost £500,000 in debt. [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-bedroomed 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 time. [27] While he was a witness in the Aquablast case in Toronto in 1975, Archer was accused of taking three suits from a department store. [28] Archer denied the accusation for many years, but in the late 1990s he 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 ever brought.

Writing career[ edit ] Archer wrote his first book, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less , in the autumn of 1974, as a means of avoiding bankruptcy. [17] The book was picked up by the literary agent Deborah Owen and published first in the US, then eventually in Britain in the autumn of 1976. 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. [29] Kane and Abel (1979) proved to be his best-selling work, reaching number one on The New York Times bestsellers list. Like most of his early work it was edited by Richard Cohen , the Olympic fencing gold-medallist. [18] 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. In the U.S.

edition of the novel, the character of Andrew Fraser was eliminated, reducing the number of protagonists to three. [30] As well as novels and short stories, Archer has also written three stage plays. The first, Beyond Reasonable Doubt, opened in 1987 and ran at the Queen's Theatre in London's West End for over a year. [31] However, Archer's next play, Exclusive, was not well received by critics, and closed after a few weeks. His final play, The Accused, opened at the Theatre Royal, Windsor on 26 September 2000, before transferring to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in the West End in December. [32] Archer has stated that 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 drafts in total. [33] In 1988 author Kathleen Burnett accused Archer of plagiarising a story she'd written and including it in his short-story collection, A Twist in the Tale . Archer denied he had plagiarised the story, claiming he'd simply been inspired by the idea.

[34] It has been suggested that Archer's books undergo an extensive editing process prior to publication. [17] Whilst Archer's books are commercially successful, critics have been generally unfavourable towards his writing. [35] However, journalist Hugo Barnacle, writing for The Independent about The Fourth Estate (1996), thought the novel, while demonstrating that "the editors don't seem to have done any work", was "not wholly unsatisfactory". [36] Since 2010, Archer has written the first draft of each new book at his luxury villa in Majorca , called "Writer's Block". [37] In 2011, Archer published the first of seven books in The Clifton Chronicles, which follow the life of Harry Clifton from his birth in 1920, through to the finale in 2020. The first novel in the series, Only Time Will Tell, tells the story of Harry from 1920 through to 1940, and was published in the UK on 12 May 2011.

[4] The sixth instalment, Cometh the Hour, was published on 25 February 2016. The final novel in the series, This Was a Man, was published on 3 November 2016. [38] Archer's next novel has been provisionally titled Heads You Win, and will be published in 2017, along with another volume of short stories. [38] Return to politics[ edit ] Deputy party chairman[ edit ] Archer's political career revived in the 1980s, and he became a popular speaker among the Conservative grassroots. He was appointed 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 . [12] 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. [6] 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, saying that his words had been "taken out of context". Archer resigned as deputy chairman 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] Daily Star libel case[ edit ] Shortly after The News of the World story broke, rival tabloid the Daily Star ran a story alleging Archer had paid for sex with Coghlan, something The News of the World had been careful to avoid stating directly. [3] Archer responded by suing the Daily Star. [39] 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. [40] Archer stated he would donate the money to charity. [41] However, 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?" [42] Although the Archers claimed they were a normal, happily-married couple, by this time, according to the journalist Adam Raphael , Jeffrey and Mary Archer were 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 . [43] Adam Raphael soon afterwards found proof that Archer had perjured himself at the trial, but his superiors were unwilling to take the risk of a potentially costly libel case.

[44] The News of the World later settled out-of-court with Archer, acknowledging they, too, had libeled him. [40] Kurdish charity and peerage[ edit ] 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 . [45] In May 1991, Archer organised a charity pop concert , starring Rod Stewart , Paul Simon , Sting and Gloria Estefan , who all performed for 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. [45] The charity would later result in further controversy. Having been previously rejected, [45] Archer was made a life peer on 27 July 1992 as Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare, of Mark in the County of Somerset . [46] Prime Minister John Major recommended him largely because of Archer's role in aid to the Kurds.

[45] Archer and Major had been friends for a number of years. [47] Political statements in 1990s[ edit ] 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. [48] This was a time when Archer was actively seeking another front-line political role. [49] On Question Time on 20 January 1994, [50] Archer stated that 18 should be the age of consent for homosexuality, as opposed to 21, which it was at the time. [51] Archer though was opposed to the age of consent for gay men being 16.

[52] Historian David Starkey was on the same edition, and said of Archer: "Englishmen like you enjoy sitting on the fence so much because you enjoy the sensation." [51] [52] Archer has also consistently been an opponent of a return to capital punishment. [53] Allegations of insider dealings[ edit ] 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. The following day, Jeffrey Archer bought 50,000 shares in Anglia Television, acting on behalf of a friend, Broosk Saib. 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. [31] The arrangements he made with the stockbrokers meant he did not have to pay at the time of buying the shares. [43] 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 due to insufficient evidence. His solicitors admitted that he had made a mistake, but Archer later said that he had been exonerated. [31] London mayoral candidature[ edit ] In 1999, Archer had been selected by the Conservative Party as candidate for the London mayoral election of 2000 , with the support of two former Prime Ministers, Lady Thatcher and John Major . [54] Eight Conservative ex-Cabinet Ministers who had been in office during the Thatcher and Major governments wrote to The Daily Telegraph in support of Archer's candidature. [54] However, on 21 November 1999 the News of the World published allegations made by Ted Francis, a former friend of Archer’s, that Archer had committed perjury in his 1987 libel case. Archer withdrew his candidature the following day. [55] 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." [56] On 4 February 2000, Archer was expelled from the party for five years. [55] Perjury trial and imprisonment[ edit ] Trial[ edit ] On 26 September 2000, Archer was charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice during the 1987 libel trial. [57] Ted Francis was charged with perverting the course of justice. [55] Simultaneously, Archer starred in a production of his own 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. [58] The perjury trial began on 30 May 2001, a month after Monica Coghlan 's death in a road traffic accident. [59] Ted Francis claimed that Archer had asked him to provide a false alibi for the night Archer was alleged to have been with Monica Coghlan.

[57] Angela Peppiatt, Archer's former personal assistant, also claimed Archer had fabricated an alibi in the 1987 trial. Peppiatt had kept a diary of Archer's movements, which contradicted evidence given during the 1987 trial. [60] Andrina Colquhoun, Archer's former mistress, confirmed that they had been having an affair in the 1980s, thus contradicting the claim that he and Mary Archer had been “happily married” at the time of the trial. [61] Archer never spoke during the trial, though his wife Mary again gave evidence as she had done during the 1987 trial. [62] 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. [63] Francis was found not guilty. Prominent journalists admitted to having accepted Archer's hospitality after he was convicted. [64] [65] Archer's mother had died shortly before he was sentenced and he was released for the day to attend her funeral.

[66] [67] Prison[ edit ] Archer was initially 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 HM Prison North Sea Camp , an open prison , in October 2001. From there he was let out to work at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln , and allowed occasional home visits. [68] Media reports claimed he had been abusing this privilege by attending lunches with friends, including former Education Secretary Gillian Shephard . [69] In September 2002 he was transferred to a Category "B" prison, Lincoln . [70] After three weeks, he was moved to the Category "D" HM Prison Hollesley Bay in Suffolk.

[71] During his imprisonment, Archer was visited by a number of high-profile friends, including actor Donald Sinden [72] and performer Barry Humphries (better known as Dame Edna Everage ). [73] 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. [74] That month, he was suspended from Marylebone Cricket Club for seven years. [75] On 21 July 2003, Archer was released on licence from Hollesley Bay after serving half of his sentence . [76] Archer remained a peer, there being no legal provision through which it could be removed other than passing a new Act of Parliament. [77] He also retained membership of the House of Lords, which did not then have the power to expel members; however, Archer has not taken an active part in the proceedings of the House. Politically he is a non-affiliated member .

[78] Prison diaries[ edit ] While in prison, Archer wrote the three-volume memoir A Prison Diary , with volumes fashioned after Dante's Divine Comedy and named after the first three prisons in which he was kept. [79] His prison term also served as inspiration for nine of the twelve short stories in the collection, Cat O' Nine Tales. [80] Kurdish aid controversy[ edit ] In July 2001, shortly after Archer was jailed for perjury, Scotland Yard began investigating allegations that millions of pounds had disappeared from his Kurdish charity. [45] [81] In 1991, Archer had claimed to have raised £57,042,000. [45] 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.

[45] A British Red Cross -commissioned KPMG audit of the cash showed no donations were handled by Archer and any misappropriation was "unlikely", however KPMG also 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. [82] Subsequent incidents[ edit ] 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. [83] 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, Simon Mann, jailed in Equatorial Guinea but released on humanitarian grounds later, for his role in leading the failed 2004 coup d'état 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 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. [84] Personal life[ edit ] Archer has been married to Mary Archer since July 1966. [12] They met at Oxford University, where Mary Archer (née Weeden) was studying chemistry at St Anne's College, Oxford . [85] She went on to specialise in solar power.

[86] They have two children: William Archer (born 1972), a theatre producer, [87] and James Archer (born 1974), a financial advisor and businessman. Mary Archer has stated that she does not consider sexual fidelity to be an important factor in a successful marriage, suggesting that friendship and loyalty are more important qualities. [85] She has often commented that Jeffrey has "a gift for inaccurate precis". [88] In 1979 the Archers purchased the Old Vicarage, Grantchester , a house associated with the poet Rupert Brooke . Every summer, they host a lavish garden party in the grounds of the Old Vicarage to celebrate their wedding anniversary. [89] By the early 1980s Archer was back in a comfortable financial position and began to hold shepherd's pie and Krug parties for prominent people at his London apartment, which overlooks the River Thames and the Houses of Parliament . [3] [19] On 26 February 2006, on Andrew Marr 's Sunday AM programme, Archer said he had no interest in returning to front-line politics and would pursue his writing instead.

[90] Health scare[ edit ] In late 2013, Archer was diagnosed with prostate cancer . He underwent a successful operation to remove the prostate in December 2013 at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, and subsequently made a full recovery. In 2010, his wife, Mary, had been diagnosed with bladder cancer , from which she appears to have made a full recovery. [91] Archer in fiction[ edit ] 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), [92] 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." [92] Willy Visits the Square World (1980) Willy and the Killer Kipper (1981)

Question: What was the name of the prostitute in the 1986/7 Jeffrey Archer scandal?
Answer: MONICA COGHLAN