Jeffrey Archer’s Clifton Chronicles saga — an expansive political drama set primarily in Britain in the 1970s — continues with the latest instalment, Cometh the Hour. Regardless of whether one has read the previous books or not, on a number of vital levels the novel does not disappoint. Picking up exactly where the thrilling Mightier than the Sword left off, the book further explores the adventures of the powerful Barringtons and Cliftons, grim villains such as Desmond Mellor and Adrian Sloane, and the unintentionally hilarious Virginia Fenwick who parodies herself at every opportunity she gets.

Having acquired a copy of a Russian interpreter’s explosive account of the Stalin regime, author Harry Clifton is determined to have it published by Aaron Guinzberg’s prestigious press, Viking. It is testament to Harry’s genuinely altruistic nature that he cares less for the ultimate fate of his own bestsellers and more for the near-destitute wife of Anatoly Babakov, who has been in a Russian prison for decades because of his comments on Stalin. While Yelena Babakova benefits financially from Harry’s efforts, her husband’s book is destined for even higher honours, a point that pleases both Harry and most international governments alike.

In the meantime, Harry’s wife Emma manages to negotiate the murky waters of the Barrington Corporation with consummate skill and diplomacy. In spite of Adrian Sloane and Virginia Fenwick’s best efforts to have her discredited, Emma triumphs unequivocally due to a selfless gesture on the part of her brother Giles, who brings his political career to a halt while he saves her corporate one.

Emma also strikes up a memorable friendship with Margaret Thatcher; Archer’s nod to feminism in Cold War Britain is both tasteful and entertaining. While Thatcher doesn’t truly believe that a woman can become prime minister as long as old-boy networks dominate, Emma convinces Thatcher that working with these networks may well be what ultimately propels a woman, such as herself, into power. To quote the future ‘Iron Lady’ (as noted in Archer’s text): “It will take the Americans even longer to elect a woman president than it will for a British woman to become prime minister, since the Americans ‘are still at heart a frontier society’.”

Familiar characters return in Archer’s delicious tale of espionage and aristocracy that spans the globe

Emma’s son Sebastian finds it easier to handle the complex machinations of Farthings Bank than the twists and turns of his own love life. Having found and lost his one true love, Samantha, in the 1960s, he falls head over heels in love with Priya Ghuman, the daughter of a ruthless Indian industrialist. Educated and good-looking, she captures his heart at a cricket match by noting that Indian women need to know a lot about the game since they would otherwise not be able to converse with their husbands about anything. Although Priya has had a marriage arranged for her by her parents, Sebastian courts her determinedly until her father and brother literally abduct her and carry her off to India by force. Not to be daunted, Sebastian pursues her with a passionate but dangerous romantic zeal; unfortunately, his attempts to get her back result in disastrous consequences for both of them.

Happily, Archer picks up the skeins of Sebastian’s former love life and plays Cupid when it comes to reuniting the hero with Samantha. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to note that Samantha’s precocious 10-year-old daughter Jessica successfully plays Cupid by hooking her biological father up with her recently widowed mother. On the espionage front, Sebastian’s uncle Giles Barrington proves to be no less romantic than his nephew. Pulling some influential strings he winds up in east Germany in order to extricate the love of his life Karin Pengelly from the clutches of what he considers to be a repressive regime. Karin is arguably one of the most interesting and tortured characters of the novel; she is invariably torn between her love for Giles and her secret dedication to the Communist cause.

As different from Karin as chalk from cheese, Giles’ divorced wife Lady Virginia Fenwick provides tons of merry moments for the reader. Facing bankruptcy, and slave to the demands of her expensive tastes, Virginia decides to snag a rich husband, and when that fails she fakes a pregnancy in order to milk a gullible tycoon for hefty child support payments! Although Archer takes a few digs at the peerage by means of his portrayal of Virginia, his private admiration for it is evinced by the fact that he loses no time in ensuring that the dispirited and discredited Giles becomes a member of the House of Lords.

Archer’s considerable experience as a novelist is evident from the way in which he manages to mix romance, espionage, comedy, politics, and occasionally violence with apparent ease. Since the novel is set in the 1970s, he also dwells on older, xenophobic aspects of English culture by having his villains entrap the financier Hakim Bishara. Bishara lands in court due to a trumped up drug-related charge, and it is up to the redoubtable detective Barry Hammond to procure enough evidence to get him released. At times, the atmosphere of the novel comes close to emulating that of a soap opera, but rather than grating on a reader’s nerves this just adds to its charm.

Perhaps the main flaw of Archer’s craft lies in the improbable nature of some of his protagonists’ actions — it is highly unlikely that eminently successful bankers and politicians would, without exception, make colossal fools of themselves over women. The maxim ‘one’s heart rules one’s head’ holds true for many of the male characters in the novel, regardless of age, race, or temperament. Nevertheless, their romantic shenanigans are as enjoyable as some of the highly emotional and/or interesting speeches and letters that intersperse the text — most notably Harry’s mother’s farewell note to her family which is read after her death, the will of Virginia’s father, and a moving speech delivered by one of the characters in Sweden at the Nobel Prize Awards Ceremony. While it isn’t strictly necessary to read the previous Clifton Chronicles books in order to appreciate the general overarching plot of Archer’s saga, they make for satisfying summer reading if one has the time, leisure, and inclination to do so. Obviously die-hard fans of Archer’s work will barely be able to contain themselves until November 2016 when the penultimate instalment of this series, This Was a Man, is published, enabling them to bid a bittersweet farewell to some of his best-known dramatis personae.

The reviewer is assistant professor of social sciences and liberal arts at the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi.

Cometh the Hour
(THRILLER)
By Jeffrey Archer
St. Martin’s Press, UK
ISBN: 978-1250061621
400pp.

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, August 7th, 2016