Jeffrey Archer apart from being a successful author of many best sellers is also an ardent cricket fan. He had come to India to promote his latest book which was anyway selling like hot cake. During this trip to India he didn’t get bitten by the IPL T20 cricket bug. Very opinionated, he minced no words and said that he had always considered the five day test only as the true test of mettle of a team. With such fondness for and knowledge of cricket he seemed to have gone overboard over the game in his book “A PRISONER OF BIRTH.”

His description of a scene in a criminal court room no 4 at Old Bailey reads as follows. “Justice Packard peered around the courtroom much as an opening batsman does when checking to see where the fielders have been placed to catch him out. His eyes rested on the prosecutor who was at the second slip, waiting for the opening ball. None of the other players caused the judge the slightest apprehension. But he knew that he wouldn’t be able to relax if Sir Mathew was to bowl. He turned his attention to the opening bowler for the home team, the PP known for taking early wickets.”

It is almost impossible to view a Judge of a criminal court as an opening batsman who steps into an alien territory not sure of his own confidence level, not knowing the state of the pitch, the swing and bounce it will produce and perhaps also unaware of the bowling action of the strike bowler who he would be facing. He is pitted against eleven players (sometimes an umpire added) all by himself to defend his wicket, tire the opening bowlers and take the shine off the ball and to pave the way for the best stroke maker who comes at No 3 position to go through his full repertoire of shots and post a big score. The judge on the other hand is the dispenser of justice watching like a hawk to see that the Prosecutor and the defending lawyer do not circumvent the procedures and principles as laid down in law.

Further at a later stage of the trial he adds that the QC leading for the crown kept on bowling to the Chief Inspector gentle off breaks and the junior to the   counsel for defence taking two catches in slips. These comparisons make me state at the risk of being called blasphemous that Jeffrey seems to have lost some balance in the cooler.

Jeffrey Archer is one of the present day best story tellers and all his books have been best sellers. He made millions and was moving up in the hierarchy of the Conservative Party in Brittan and literary circles. He was on a roll and going places but for reasons beyond my comprehension he committed a few acts of indiscretion which sent him to cool his heels in a cooler for a couple of years.

He looks fit and none the worse for the time he spent in the jail. His latest book showed that his grey cells are functioning at the same speed as earlier.

He has always introduced a twist in the tale at the end and surprised the reader. Old habits die hard and in his latest book also he introduced an interesting twist in the tale at the end.

His experience in the jail helped him a lot to describe the life of the inmates in British prisons and the way the prisoners are treated. The book is definitely a “must read” for all those who are engaged in administering the prisons and interested in prison reforms.

His narration of the court scenes is excellent and will be very helpful to all young aspirants of criminal lawyers.

His prose is simple and propels the reader at a fast pace. At times he peppers it with some thoughts of philosophy and wisdom. To quote “there had also been moments of triumph to sit alongside disaster, The Gods prefer it that way.”

With due respects to such a reputed author I beg to differ with him in some ways.

First the entire novel is based on a single incident when one of the four well educated and well heeled young men who were almost on a roll commits a heinous crime as murder all for making a lewd remark at a beautiful young girl in a bar escorted by her fiancé who had just proposed to her and her brother. As if that was not bad enough the main culprit was only drinking wine (although more than what was good for him) to celebrate the Birthday   of one of the four Musketeers, an organisation formed in their University days with a motto “all for one and one all”. He challenges a younger fellow to come outside on the road and on the spur of the moment stabs him to death thereby jeopardising his own career and involves his best friends too in the case.

The entire story is based on this single incident which doesn’t ring true. It could have been understandable if the assailant had been under the influence of stronger liquor. The crime committed was not a premeditated murder without any motive but culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Since the assailant was a well qualified and leading lawyer he could have pleaded guilty, cited mitigating circumstances and got away cheaply. But then Jeffrey would have had no story to build on. Once we accept this shaky foundation we progress rapidly through the book as it is a very “good read”   thereafter.

 His prose as usual is excellent.” They are both oaks, even if they were planted in different forests. But then m’lord, we all suffer in our different ways from being prisoners of birth.” One witness, a solicitor in the High Court of Scotland opined while in the witness box.

This sums up the latest book of Jeffrey Archer with the title A PRISONER OF BIRTH.