The Clifton Chronicles, Volumes 4-7, RMT147D

The Clifton Chronicles continues its span across decades of British life, following two families locked together by money, love, ambition and old enmity. Books four to seven carry the story towards the Thatcher years and Archer accelerates without mercy: a shipping company under siege, an IRA bomb on the flagship liner, a bestselling novelist fighting to free a colleague from a Soviet gulag, a banker falling for the wrong woman, a politician in Whitehall learning the truth about his wife, and Lady Virginia Fenwick plotting through all of it with terrible patience. Archer makes loyalty to his characters feel like the easiest thing in the world.

Jeffrey Archer, Be Careful What You Wish For - One hospital room decides two families’ fates, and Archer turns the screw with complete assurance. You feel every turn.

Jeffrey Archer, Mightier Than the Sword - The IRA, the Iron Curtain, a shipping empire under attack: Archer at full throttle is genuinely irresistible.

Jeffrey Archer, Cometh the Hour - Bankruptcy, a gulag, Sebastian Clifton in love with the wrong woman: Archer makes his characters suffer magnificently, and his readers are glad of every page.

Jeffrey Archer, This Was a Man - A call from Margaret Thatcher, a duchess’s death and Lady Virginia’s last gamble: Archer brings the saga home with a flourish.