Bangalore Lit Fest: Jeffrey Archer and a quiver full of arrows

For the avid bibliophiles who trickled into this year’s highly sanitised Bangalore Lit Fest 2020, love in the time of corona had a definite ring of letters. Social distance was the literal flavour of the fest, as authors, panellists and moderators played around in their online-offline avatars.

In this new ‘hybrid’ mode — a first for the LitFest regulars — physical presence merged with flickering screens. Best-selling author Jeffrey Archer appeared on one such screen as novelist Nirmala Govindarajan unleashed a flurry of queries.

Displayed at the venue, Archer’s children’s books had raised eyebrows. This unheralded side of the racy writer was noticed quickly, and Nirmala articulated that curiosity as a direct question. Jeffrey recalled how he had written for his children, who were then aged six and eight.

Archer’s Indian publishers had discovered this treasure, republishing them with remarkable illustrations. He was delighted with their popularity, but had no plans to write more of those. The man already is a best-selling phenomenon with record sales crossing a whopping 320 million.

Nirmala’s next question had the audience and viewers hooked: “Would he write more about India?” Archer had referred to Bombay in some of this books but had not ventured deeper.

He had a reason to be circumspect about writing on India: He was afraid of getting it wrong.

But Archer had a favourite Indian author: R K Narayan. “A genius, a great storyteller who writes about something simple and makes us want to turn the page,” that was his take on Narayan. Archer was introduced to him by a literary editor on a visit to Bengaluru years ago.

Did he have a secret sauce that formed his plot and had his readers hooked in droves? Archer said he does not plan the plot. He just gets up every morning, prays, takes up the pen and it moves across the paper every single day. That was quirky, but he was lucky to have this God-given gift.

Archer’s was a rare sight for the viewers, and their questions came thick and fast. “What keeps you 80 years young?”

In response, Archer reminisced on his early days when his first book, ‘Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less’, was turned down by 16 publishers. His breakthrough came only in his third book, ‘Kane and Abel’. His message was to keep going.

He had a definite routine: Write from 6 am to 8 am, take a two-hour break, back to writing from 10 am to noon and so on, till 8 pm. He writes by hand, then his secretary types it out. He hands in his 14th or 15th draft to his publisher!