Jeffrey Archer: My first author signing :)

Guess what??? Obviously you did from the title, but I want to say it out. I went to a signing by Jeffrey Archer on Sunday. yay!!!

Honestly, I have not read a single book by him, except half of Kane and Abel. But even if you haven’t read any of his work, you must have heard about him, right? So when I got a message that he was coming to my city for the launch of the book ‘Paths of Glory”, I had to go. I’ve never been to any signing or author event before, because there are next to none in my city.

We reached 15 mins early but the space was packed. I mean I didn’t expect so many people would turn up (nor I think the staff did). Jeffrey Archer came right on time.

He was so funny and quick witted and he commanded attention from each and every person. He spoke about his latest book “Paths of Glory”. Apparently, it’s based on a true story. It’s about George Mallory who went on a mountaineering expedition to Everest and in 1924. He disappeared for a while and was found dead on the mountain in 1999. Sounds interesting to me.

Among Indian writers he said he loved R.K.Narayanan. Unfortunately, I have read just one short story collection by him called “Malgudi days”.

He also spoke about his first book “Not a penny less, not a penny more”. It was rejected 14 times and it sold only 3000 copies. His second book “Kane and Abel” shot to the top of the New York times best selling list. Talking about Kane and Abel, he said that 30 years after it was first published, he thought he could revisit it and slip the changes, if any, in the next edition. But he ended up almost re-writing it. The re-written version is 7,200 words short and it’s going to be available in October this year. And the older version will go out of print for a while.

Next, he is working on a short story collection and a book which will be a family saga.

I really loved what he said about storytelling. He said everyone can be a writer but very few people are storytellers. It’s a god given gift. He said Charles Dickens and R.K.Narayan are one of the best examples.

Sorry for the choppy update, I wrote whatever I could remember. And obviously there aren’t many pictures, because he said he was getting distracted by the camera flashes. I got the book ‘Paths of Glory” signed by him, but again he said there won’t be any dedications as the line was huge.

After we were done, we went to my favorite Chinese place and had some yummy food. I wanted to take pictures of the food the way Alice does, lol , but we were so hungry, it kind of slipped out of my mind.

Have you been to a Jeffrey Archer signing before? Have you read any of his books? Which one is your favorite? What do you think about the new version of Kane and Abel? Would you buy it?