Evening with Lord Archer

Jeffery Archer was born in the 1940 in Weston super Mare, he was a politician and is now an author. Archer was a member of Parliament from 1969 to 1974. He was a member for the conservative party and he loved politics just as much as he loved writing. I think that the two professions tie up quite well as you have to be good at writing speeches and the other you have to be a great writer. He became a life peer in 1992 as well as a mayor of london for a brief time, before having to resign.

I think the achievement that I most admire about Jeffery Archer is that he won a Scholarship to Wellington College in 1951. He was then offered a place at Oxford University. I think Jeffery Archer had a tough upbringing even after he gained success at Oxford, and I think that this was in part because he was disappiontented in his father being a conman.

It was a privalage to hear the storyteller Jeffery Archer talk in Church House in Westminister. Church House is an impressive building as it has close links to Westminister abbey. One can see the special Dean's Yard. It was a shame that we were there during the evening, otherwise the view would have been very impressive. As it was we could just see the outside part of the unique Abbey glowing in the light like a ghost.

The first time I met Lord Archer, was on my first Viking Cruise journey and so it was lovely that his amazing wife remembered who I was from our previous voyage together. When I was on this first cruise, Jefferey Archer was the main guest lecturer. He was very good at explaining how he sold so many of his books; he never gave up and always kept on going because he had belief in himself and that he would be a success.

When I am at these book signing events I always sit at the front row. Which means you have to move in fast to go straight to the front. It works every time! I love being at the front row of these book signing events, as it shows character. I have a saying for these conference either set at the front row or at the back row.

Church house was a formidable setting as when we were queuing up to meet Jeffery Archer the backdrop was Westminster abbey. It was in a grand setting which felt like the Freemasons Hall that I had visited early on in the year. As I waited in the long queue in the Hall to meet Jeffery Archer I walked out onto the terrace which overlooked Deens yard. It had a breathtaking view of Westminister it looked rather ghostly in the dark.

I am very fortunate to have heard the king of short stories share his secrets with me. As a young writer it was a special privalage to hear the great man share with the audience how he formed his work ethic. His profession is writing, and he gives it his absolute everything. He does not share any book with his wife, who is a don at a Cambridge College, until he has written eight drafts. His style of writing is his cliffhangers, of which he is a master .

This links into my love of writing, as I love writing my blog and hearing him share his secrets with me was a gift from the gods. I think that what made this conference very special is listening to the questions put by the audience to Jeffery Archer. I think they were well chosen questions like what was his favourite book, which he said was "not a penny more or a penny less', and he liked that book the most because it was rejected by publishers at the beginning. Yet he told the audience that persistance s the key to success.

I love writing short stories as they are one of my passions in life, it is a great way of exercising my mind. Writing can be linked to music as its a way of developing your mind. It's great at strengthening your mind in the way it helps me to focus. Having Aspergers I get distracted a lot. Writing helps me focus my mind on one goal, and boom we have a story! I am still working hard at this and am getting better with each attempt. As Jeffry Archer often says, the art of short stories is like learning piano, it takes time.