Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Clifton Chronicles - Book Review

It's one of the latest series by Jeffrey Archer and is a series of fast moving thriller story as usual. The story goes through three books which have been published till now: Only Time will Tell, Sins of the Father and The Best Kept Secret. The book series is unputdownable and at the end of the third book, you are left waiting for the fourth book in the series.

It covers the story of two families Cliftons and Barringtons living in England at the time of World War. The  story chronicles the life of Harry Clifton, an industrious and resourceful guy who grows up to be a writer. He has a close association with Barrington family starting in his childhood, with Giles Barrington being his best friend in school. 

Ironically, Giles Barrington's father Hugo Barrington is responsible for the untimely demise of Harry Clifton's father in a shipping accident

The story revolves around how Clifton grows up to be an intelligent and successful person, even while having a humble background, with his widowed mother bringing him up. The paternity of Harry Clifton is also in question and leads to lot of trouble in the book series.

When Harry Clifton grows up, he also lands up in american prison because of mistaken identity. His enterprising wife Emma Barrington comes to America to save him. Harry Clifton ends up writing his prison experiences as Prison Diaries, which end up being bestseller, thus establishing Harry Clinton as a formidable author.


Jeffrey Archer is a master story teller and this series also shows his eloquent craftmanship. The story is written in the times, when women were not given seats in colleges or company boards easily.

I am wondering, why Ekta Kapoor doesn't take inspiration from this book series and launch a soap opera. The series has all the requisite elements of a long television series: Long Story, Sacrificial Mother, Prodigal Illegitimate Son, Two Family Trees, Lot of Wealth and Accidental Scenarios binding all of them together.


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