The ideas never stop coming, says Jeffrey Archer
In An Eye for an Eye, which is the seventh book of the Warwick series, Miles Faulkner and his devious plans for William Warwick get entangled with political intrigue. Your last book, Traitor’s Gate, was inspired by a conversation about the Crown jewels. What was the inspiration for this one?
The inspiration for this book was discovering that Thomas Jefferson hand wrote the Declaration of Independence while he was in Paris, and if the copy were to be found today, it would be worth £100 million. Miles Faulkner finds it.
Did you have the plotlines of all eight books in this series when you started it?
No, I have no idea what will happen in the next book until I have the outline of the subject. So, in An Eye for An Eye, I knew it was an international crime. I do know the subject for the eighth and final book, which will be the 2012 Olympic Games.
The character William Warwick emerged from your earlier series Clifton Chronicles. Did you, at that time, foresee a series on Warwick alone, or did that develop in time? Did you think as a character he has a lot of potential to develop a series on?
No, the public were responsible for the William Warwick series. They wrote and told me how much they would like Harry Clifton’s hero to be a subject in his own right and, as a politician, I have learned to follow the public.
You usually write a couple of drafts by hand before submitting the final one. Has that process remained the same since you started writing? How do you find that useful?
Yes, I still continue to write every draft by hand. The latest novel, An Eye for An Eye, was the fourteenth draft. I wish it would get easier, but it doesn’t.
You have been writing for 50 years now, and you are one of the most prolific writers. How do you manage to keep yourself motivated to write, especially when it is said that people are reading less?
I suppose if I could not come up with stories, or became bored, I would stop writing, but fortunately the ideas never stop coming. The William Warwick series has seen William rise right from that rank of a Constable, and make his way up to Chief Superintendent, and each book has had a new subject: art fraud, drugs, murder, international conspiracy, protection of the royal family.
There has always been a new subject to explore, and with the help of my two researchers—Chief Superintendent John Sutherland and Detective Sergeant Michelle Roycroft—both retired, once I have got the story, they are able to make sure the facts are correct.
What’s next for William Warwick?
The final William Warwick novel will see William as a Commander in charge of the 2012 Olympic Games. In this particular book, I am taking the advice of Commander Bob Broadhurst, who was, in fact, the senior police officer in charge of security at the London Olympics. You are not going to believe what he told me!