Avenging Archer

‘GET out the bunting and unpack the stale sausage rolls that didn’t get eaten at last year’s Golden Jubilee street party – Jeffrey Archer is coming out of prison today.

Is he not fragrant?

The noble lord, so unjustly imprisoned in 2001 for telling a little white lie about his relationship with a prostitute, has served two years of his four-year sentence for perjury.

He has been let out early for good behaviour – breaking the terms of his licence, smuggling prison diaries out of his cell, identifying fellow inmates and their crimes, butting another con’s boot with his groin…

But, while we all sing ‘For he’s a jolly rich fellow’ at the top of our voices, it would appear that not everyone is happy to see Jeff on the outside.

While the Mail serialises his new jail diary, the Express warns that the ‘crooked peer’ will today stroll out of jail ‘with a grin on his face – and revenge in his heart’.

The 63-year-old, it says, has set up a £4m war chest to launch a series of legal actions against the people he blames for his downfall, which surprisingly seems to include everyone but himself.

On the hit list are his former PA Angela Peppiatt, his former friend Ted Francis and former MP Emma Nicholson.

But yesterday Peter Beckwith, who employs Mrs Peppiatt at his educational trust, warned Archer away from his employee.

‘This is the sort of bullyboy tactics he has always employed,’ he told the Express. ‘People like to think he’s a likeable rogue, but he’s not. He’s a thug.’

Some people, however, can’t wait to be sipping Jeffrey’s Krug and scoffing his shepherd’s pie again.

Men like art dealer Chris Beetles, who said his friend was ‘a rare commodity’ who had so much energy ‘he should be plugged into the National Grid’.

Now there’s an idea…

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Posted: 21st, July 2003 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink