Jeffery Archer : the author and disgraced Tory politician talked to me about his joy in being a story teller.

Jeffery Archer has died.

The obituaries all make reference to his colourful life.

This conversation was recorded in the year 2000, the year before he was jailed for perjury. Im sure it's coincidence that there are two ex high flying Tories on this podcast who both found themselves in jail for lying under oath.

LIke others that came after him this former vice chairman of the Conservative Party and would be Mayor of London had supreme confidence in his ability to tell lies and then lie his way out of the consequences of the earlier untruths. Jeffery Archer was confident he would always 'get away with it'. The edifice of untruths became unsustainable and eventually collapsed. 

The reason for this interview was the publication of a new collection of short stories. The coverage in the tabloids at the time was much more about his relationship with a prostitute and how he persuaded a friend to give her money to go away.

With hindsight his lies were going to send him to prison and I should maybe have asked him about being banished from the Tory party and his payments to sex worker Monica Coghlan. That might have made a more riveting conversation. 

What cannot be denied is that he was a very successful author. A lauded politician at the Conservative conference.

Whatever you feel about Jeffrey Archer he was undeniably a supreme storyteller.