Jeffrey Archer: And thereby hangs a tale

Jeffrey Archer has a natural aptitude for short stories which are stylish, witty and entertaining. His mastery of characterization and suspense, combined with a gift for the unexpected, jaw-dropping plot twist, show him at the height of his powers and demonstrate why he is one of Britain's bestselling authors. All of Jeffrey's collections of short stories have been top ten bestsellers and he is undoubtedly the bestselling English-language short story writer of our times.

As always, I enjoyed the short stories. However, out of all the short stories written by Jeffrey Archer, this was the weakest collection of stories in my eyes. In previous collections there were more twists and turns and the stories were largely of Archer's imagination, whereas in this collection Archer merely retells stories he has come across. He is a great storyteller and so it's a shame that he relies too heavily on real incidents.