The book William Hague refused to read but now wishes he had. Michael Crick's widely praised biography of the extraordinarily invented life of Jeffrey Archer, fabulist, politician, fundraiser, and fibber on a grand scale.

In the words of his wife, the fragrant Mary, Jeffrey Archer has ' a genius for inaccurate precis', which from one who knows him best is a pretty concise and damning summary. Here, Michael Crick tells the life story of a great adventurer and fantasist. Jeffrey Archer's version of his past is scrupulously examined and every inaccuracy corrected. From his Oxford Blue to his brief days as a policeman, from his share dealings in Anglia Television to his extraordinary association with Monica Coghlan, a prostitute who, according to Archer, he paid not to have sex with him. As Archer's political career implodes with yet another falsehood plastered across the press, Michael Crick's classic biography of a political life at the end of the century is more than ever required reading. This is Archer, warts - well, smooth shoulders, spots or hairy back according to your sources - and all. Here lies Jeffrey Archer.