Jeffrey Archer

With over two dozen books and international sales passing 250 million, Jeffrey Archer is a publishing and cultural phenomenon. Former Deputy Chairman of England’s Conservative Party, he served five years in the House of Commons, fourteen years in the House of Lords and two in Her Majesty’s prisons.

Jeffrey Archer was born in London. He was educated at Wellington School, Somerset, and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he gained an athletics blue, was President of the University Athletics Club, and went on to run the 100 yards in 9.6 seconds for Great Britain in 1966.

After leaving Oxford he was elected to the GLC in 1966 and three years later at the age of 29, he was elected a Member of Parliament for Louth. After five years he resigned from the House of Commons, and wrote his first novel Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less.

Now, with fourteen novels, six sets of short stories, three plays (all of which have been performed in the West End) and three children’s books, he is published in 97 countries and more than 37 languages, and has international sales passing 250 million. Only Time Will Tell is his fifteenth novel, and will be published March 2011.

Jeffrey Archer was Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party from September 1985 until November 1986 and was made a Life Peer in 1992. He has served five years in the House of Commons, fourteen years in the House of Lords and two in Her Majesty’s prisons, since when he has published three volumes of his Prison Diaries.

Jeffrey is an amateur auctioneer, having raised more than ten million pounds for charity in the last ten years. Jeffrey completed the Flora London Marathon on April 18th 2004, in 5 hours 26 minutes, raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation UK, the British Heart Foundation, the Fund for Addenbrooke’s and the Facial Surgery Research Foundation, and in the process, was overtaken by a camel, a phone box and a girl walking. He has no plans to repeat the experience.

Jeffrey has also written two screenplays,Paths of Glory and False Impression.

Jennifer Byrne is a senior journalist and broadcaster who has worked in all arms of the media: print, radio and television.

Having done her cadetship at the Age and worked on UK’s Fleet Street, she was a founding reporter with Channel Nine’s Sunday programme and spent some 12 years traveling the world for 60 Minutes and as anchor for Foreign Correspondent. She was publishing director of Reed Books, morning presenter on ABC radio, won national awards as interviewer and columnist for the Bulletin and, in May 2006, returned to TV to create the country’s first televised Book Club, which ran on the ABC for 11 years until December 2019.

Alongside books, Jennifer’s favourite pastime – far too serious to be called a hobby – has since the age of two been the playing of games. Including quizzes, cards, board games, and crosswords (physical and electronic). To be invited to become the first Australian host of Mastermind – a show she grew up watching, of course – is the realisation of a dream she didn’t know she had. Jennifer hosted series two of Mastermind plus Celebrity Mastermind in 2020.