Kane, Abel and Archer: The Storyteller Lives on (1940-2026)

Jeffrey Archer died suddenly and peacefully at home on 5 October, aged 86, "between writing sessions," and a day before his swansong "Adam & Eve" hit the stands.

Just the exit he would script for a character of his novel.

I was never a fan of his writing but I admired what he did on his home turf: short chapters, long-running rivalries, rags-to-riches chronicles and the customary, if often predictable, twist saved for the last page. One line that has stayed with me: "If you have to pay a bill, always make it look as if the amount is of no consequence."

Yes, many of his characters were thin, dialogue wooden, and the formula over-chewed, and his public scandals duly tarnished his image. Readers didn't mind though. In India especially, he had a devoted following that few British authors have matched.

His own life was no less eventful than his novels. He became a Conservative MP at 29 and lost almost everything in a failed investment a few years later. He wrote his way out of debt with Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1976), and then of course Kane and Abel made him a household name across the globe.

My interest in him was more given his other love: cricket.

He admired Rahul Dravid as a "beautiful stroke player" and ranked the 2001 Laxman–Dravid Test at Eden Gardens among the greatest matches ever played.

Archer's "Adam & Eve" follows a shepherd's son and an earl's daughter, both born on Armistice Day 1918, through a love story that spans another world war.

Worth a read as a mark of respect for the man who lived on the cusp of fact and fable.