From London to China, and New York to Nigeria, Jeffrey Archer takes the reader on a tour of ancient heirlooms and modern romance, of cutthroat business and kindly strangers, of lives lived in the realms of power and lives freed from the gloom of oppression. Fortunes are made and squandered, honor betrayed and redeemed, and love lost and rediscovered. (Worldcat.org)[1]
Stories
The Chinese Statue
The story begins in Sotheby’s auction house, where a Chinese statue, belonging to an aristocrat, is put under the hammer. Upon delving deeper, the narrator of the story discovers that the statue was acquired by Sir Alexander Heathcote in the village of Ha Li Chaun, during one of the trips he took into the Chinese country to explore his love for Chinese art, in particular art that belonged to the Ming dynasty. The statue was acquired from an old nondescript craftsman. In reality, the statue had just been shown to Sir Alexander when the craftsman had discovered his interest in Ming dynasty. However, since Chinese traditions dictated that the host must part with anything a guest desires, the craftsman had to part with the statue. Since Sir Alexander himself was an exact man, he repaid the craftsman in full, building for him a nice house in the hills where he could retire.
Sir Alexander, in his will, wrote that the statue must be passed on to the first-born of each heir, and should only be sold when the family name was in peril. After Sir Alexander Heathcote, the statue travelled into the custody of his son, Major James Heathcote, who displayed it amongst his trophies at his regiment Halifax. From Major James Heathcote’s table, the statue was then placed in the bishop’s house, where the next heir Right Revered resided. Then the statue once again found its way back to Halifax, for the next heir, Captain James also worked for the army. Captain James, however, lost his life untimely, and the statue was then passed on to his two-year old son, Alex. Alex, spoilt by his mother from a young age, did not have the same regard for the statue as his ancestors did. And so, when he gambled away all his money at roulette and got a threatening call from his creditors, he decided to auction away the statue to pay his debts.
When Alex carried the statue to Sotheby, he was informed later that the statue was a counterfeit and was only worth a fraction of what he owed his creditors. However, Alex’s stars were aligned, for the base of the statue – something that the old craftsman had put in place for the original statue was without a base – was an artefact that was worth a fortune. The narrator of the story then became the next owner of the statue, buying it for seven hundred and twenty guineas; whereas, the base was auctioned off to another American gentleman for twenty-two thousand guineas.
The Coup
Eduardo De Silveria and Manuel Rodrigues, rival construction magnates from Brazil, arrive in Nigeria. Eduardo is hoping to receive the contract for building the city of Abuja while Manuel is there for a port contract. A coup owing to Colonel Dimka who assassinates the president General Muhammad causes all the flights out of Nigeria to be cancelled and both Eduardo and Manuel are forced to spend time together locked out from the world. During this time they discover a friendship and at the end of the period become good friends and even business partners.
The First Miracle
Pontius Pilate, son of the governor of the Judea Province, is sent by his mother to buy three pomegranates and a chicken. In the town of Bethlehem he meets Joseph and Mary, just before the birth of Jesus Christ. He is mesmerized by the presence of Mary and offers all his food items to her. On the way back he sees the three wise men (the Magi) and give them the pomegranates. When he arrives home very late his authoritarian father demands the truth from Pontius and refuses to believe his story. His father whips him and sends him to bed.
His mother is also reluctant to believe his story but when she comes to apply balm on his wounds she discovers that all his wounds have miraculously healed. She walks out the room believing him.
The Perfect Gentleman
Edward Shrimpton is met by the author at a local club. Shrimpton was an ace player of backgammon for the club, considered to be the best. He was defeated by Harry Newman however on the eve of a major club championship which was puzzling as Newman was a good player but not in Shrimpton's league. Harry Newman had suffered a lot. His wife had left him for a partner, his partner had stolen his share of money and he was nearly destitute. Yet after this win, Harry had gone from success to success with amazing ease.
When the author met Shrimpton, he found out that he had intentionally made Newman win, to give him some hope, and did not care about any recognition in the matter, continuing to claim that Newman won because of his own talents, making Shrimpton a "perfect gentleman".
One Night Stand
Michael and Adrian run into Debbie in New York. They are both Londoners who had bought travelled in New York, and decide between themselves to have a one-night stand with Debbie. They also share a code that whoever returns to New York gets to have a one-night stand with Debbie.
Michael returns to New York, calls Debbie, and the couple have a one-night stand. As Michael turns to leave, Debbie informs him to his horror that Debbie herself had decided to have a one-night stand, and deciding to ignore New Yorkers who would think she was easy, had made a decision that whichever one of Michael or Adrian came to New York, she would have a one-night stand with him.
The Century
An unnamed Oxonian has an ambition to succeed as a cricketer for Oxford and follow his famous cricketer father's footsteps. He wishes to make a name for himself in the Oxford vs Cambridge cricket match.
In his first year, he makes the team and has a terrific season but somehow injures his finger before the final match. In his second year he is in poor form and asks his captain to drop him from the finals. In his third year, he is the captain.
He struggles with the ball and with the bat getting out cheaply for a duck in the first innings. In his second innings - set a total of 214 to get - he struggles and nearly gets out, but after hooking a boundary, begins to score runs briskly. At his score on 99, he is stranded in the middle of the crease and the ball is with the opposition captain Robin Oakley, who, instead of running the captain out and thereby putting Cambridge in a winning position, chooses to allow the captain to go back to the crease. The captain hits a boundary, scores his hundred and deliberately gets out hit wicket to honour the opposition.
The match ends in a draw as rain pours down, thereby being the ideal situation expected for one and all.
The story is reportedly[according to whom?] based on the famous Indian cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan "Tiger" Pataudi (also known as the Nawab of Pataudi). Pataudi was a student at Oxford, and was involved in a serious car accident in which he lost the use of his right eye.
Broken Routine
Septimus Horatio Cornwallis is a normal man who has a pretty common routine. He is a claims adjuster with an insurance company. His extremely tight routine is badly affected one day when he is asked to stay late. He returns home in a packed train, when he discovers that a young hoodlum has misappropriated his cigarettes and his newspaper. He decides to confront the young man, and smokes his cigarettes one after the other. The young man does the same and it becomes a contest. Finally Septimus, feeling that he has taught the young man a lesson, opens his briefcase to find his cigarettes and paper intact, implying that he has actually been smoking the young man's cigarettes and been abusing the young man's paper.
Henry's Hiccup
Henry is the son of the Grand Pasha of Egypt. He is a millionaire living in London but is used to everything being done by his manservant Barker. He has done nothing in his life, and so has no knowledge of travel or of making arrangements.
During the war he stays in America. When he returns, he marries Victoria. During their honeymoon, without Barker, Henry runs into one difficulty after another, traveling third class by train and ship to France and staying in a small room in the George V without making arrangements.
In the end a flower girl who knew him sarcastically gives him flowers for his wife when she realises that he has no money and forgot to bring any.
A Matter of Principle
Sir Hamish Graham was brought up in the 1950s. He is an uncompromising Scot who is honest and talented and hardworking, but also narrow minded and pompous. In the 1970s his construction company is not doing too well, when he is given a Mexican contract.
He refuses to believe that an agent, Victor Perez, is required to be appointed, to whom ten percent of the contract price must be paid and that this percentage is actually the minister's cut. He visits the minister and insists on knowing the full details and simply refuses to believe any version of the minister, who tells him that Victor's father once, at great personal risk, saved an injured soldier, which was why the government gives him the privileges of getting money from tenders. Later, when Graham does not understand, the Minister realizes that Sir Hamish is not a man who can do business the Mexican way and sends him out. In the end, the minister is shown to be limping, revealing that he was the injured soldier.
Old Love
The story follows two students, William Hatchard and Phillippa Jameson, of English literature from Oxford in the 1930s. They both fell in enmity with each other at first sight. The mutual hatred began a fierce sense of competition which enabled them to outshine their contemporaries, but to remain neck-to-neck with each other. Their rivalry is to be decided by the Charles Oldham Prize. Phillipa's father dies, William drives her to the funeral, and the two fall in love.
Their love is decided by the Charles Oldham which both of them share. They get married and are deeply in love, their love expressed by sarcastic remarks. They rise to become phenomenal successes in their own fields, becoming professors and teaching chairs of Oxford in English Literature, and receiving knighthoods.
One day William and Phillipa have an argument on a crossword puzzle on the existence of the word 'Whymwham'. Phillipa dies of a heart attack after William leaves for College. When William finds this out, he shoots himself, leaving a note saying, 'Forgive me, but I had to let her know.' He could not bear to live without her and rumor had it that they were never apart for more than a few hours.
After the revolution, the writer meets a professor in Hungary who knows more about England than the writer himself, who hails from London. The professor's interest in London touches the writer; he realizes that the professor died without achieving his dream to visit England.
The Luncheon
A writer meets Susan at a literary party. He remembers a luncheon date with her when he was struggling to make ends meet. Susan was a chatty type who invited him to lunch, which cost him his entire savings account fortune. He attended the lunch as he believed Susan's husband was a popular producer but she kept this fact from him till the very end, when she confessed that she had divorced him and was married to the owner of the very restaurant where the writer had spent all of his money.
Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare is an English novelist, life peer, convicted criminal, and former politician. Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not seek re-election after a financial scandal that left him almost bankrupt.
Persuasion is the last novel completed by Jane Austen. It was published on December 20, 1817, along with Northanger Abbey, six months after her death, although the title page is dated 1818.
The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine Pictorial Review. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. Appleton & Company. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize. Though the committee had initially agreed to give the award to Sinclair Lewis for Main Street, the judges, in rejecting his book on political grounds, "established Wharton as the American 'First Lady of Letters'". The story is set in the 1870s, in upper-class, "Gilded Age" New York City. Wharton wrote the book in her 50s, after she was already established as a major author, in high demand by publishers.
The White Company is a historical adventure by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, set during the Hundred Years' War. The story is set in England, France and Spain, in the years 1366 and 1367, against the background of the campaign of Edward the Black Prince, to restore Peter of Castile to the throne of the Kingdom of Castile. The climax of the book occurs before the Battle of Nájera. Doyle became inspired to write the novel after attending a lecture on the Middle Ages in 1889. After extensive research, The White Company was published in serialised form in 1891 in The Cornhill Magazine. Additionally, the book is considered a companion to Doyle's 1905–06 Sir Nigel, which explores the early campaigns of Sir Nigel Loring and Samkin Aylward.
Andy O'Brien is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Ross Davidson. One of the original characters created for the series, Andy made his first appearance one month after the show first broadcast, in the 10th episode on 21 March 1985. Portrayed as altruistic and middle-classed, Andy and his girlfriend Debbie were an attempt to represent gentrification of the East End. Despite Davidson claiming that there had been plans for his character, Andy is the first regular character in EastEnders to be killed off. Davidson claimed this was due to an altercation between himself and Executive Producer and show creator, Julia Smith. He was killed in August 1986 when he was hit by an out of control lorry.
Robin and Marian is a 1976 British-American romantic adventure film from Columbia Pictures, shot in Panavision and Technicolor, that was directed by Richard Lester and written by James Goldman after the legend of Robin Hood. The film stars Sean Connery as Robin Hood, Audrey Hepburn as Lady Marian, Nicol Williamson as Little John, Robert Shaw as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Richard Harris as Richard the Lionheart, and Denholm Elliott as Will Scarlet. It also features comedian Ronnie Barker in a rare film role as Friar Tuck. Robin and Marian was filmed in Zamora, as well as Artajona, Urbasa, Quinto Real and Orgi, all small medieval villages in Navarre, Spain. It marked Hepburn's return to the screen after an eight-year absence.
A Murder Is Announced is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1950 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in the same month. The UK edition sold for eight shillings and sixpence (8/6) and the US edition at $2.50.
Young Men in Spats is a collection of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 3 April 1936 by Herbert Jenkins, London, then in the United States with a slightly different selection of stories on 24 July 1936 by Doubleday, Doran, New York.
Debbie "Debs" Wilkins is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Shirley Cheriton, from 21 March 1985 to 14 May 1987.
The Thirteen Problems is a short story collection by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by Collins Crime Club in June 1932 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1933 under the title The Tuesday Club Murders. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. The thirteen stories feature the amateur detective Miss Marple, her nephew Raymond West, and her friend Sir Henry Clithering. They are the earliest stories Christie wrote about Miss Marple. The main setting for the frame story is the fictional village of St Mary Mead.
Harper is a 1966 American mystery film based on Ross Macdonald's 1949 novel The Moving Target and adapted for the screen by novelist William Goldman, who admired MacDonald's writings. The film stars Paul Newman as Lew Harper, and was directed by Jack Smight, with a cast that includes Robert Wagner, Julie Harris, Janet Leigh, Shelley Winters, Lauren Bacall, and Arthur Hill.
Scotland Yard is a 1941 American crime drama film starring Nancy Kelly and Edmund Gwenn about a fugitive whose visage has been altered with plastic surgery. The movie was directed by Norman Foster. It is also known as Uncensored. It is a remake of the 1930 film of the same title, which was in turn based on a 1929 play Scotland Yard by Denison Clift.
Nawab Mohammad Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was an Indian cricketer and a former captain of the Indian cricket team.
Kirants Monastery is an 8th-century Armenian monastery located about 10 kilometers southwest of Kirants village in the Tavush Province of Armenia.
Slide is an Australian teen drama series which premiered on the Fox8 subscription television channel and aired from 16 August to 18 October 2011. The series followed the lives of five teenagers making their way into adulthood in the city of Brisbane. FOX8 confirmed in February 2012 a second season was not commissioned.
The Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi Memorial Lecture was inaugurated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on 6 February 2013. It was established to honour the former Indian captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, who died in 2011. The inaugural Lecture was delivered by former captain of the Indian cricket team Sunil Gavaskar on 20 February 2013, at the Taj Coromandel hotel in Chennai. The BCCI indicated that the lecture would be an annual event.
A Man Was Going Down the Road is a novel written by Otar Chiladze in 1973. It was translated into English by Donald Rayfield in 2012.
"Old Love" is a short story written by English author Jeffrey Archer. Published in 1980 in Archer's A Quiver Full of Arrows by Hodder & Stoughton, it is the tale of two undergraduates at Oxford in the 1930s and their bitter rivalry that ends in a tragic love story.
References
↑ A Quiver Full of Arrows. OCLC Worldcat. OCLC8589698.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
