Jeffrey Archer and Alan Gard.Photo:Simon Perry
Simon Perry
The inspiration for storytellerJeffrey Archer’s new novel about a plot to steal the Crown Jewels came from an unlikely place: the royal household!
A little nudge over dinner one evening from someone who had worked at the royal household was enough to get the famed author plotting: Could the unthinkable be done?
Archer, 83, whose books have sold around 275 million copies across the world, came up with the idea for his novelTraitors Gateas he and his wife, Dame Mary Archer, were taking their first vacation post-COVID, the guests of Tors Hagen, the owner of the Viking Cruise line. Archer won’t reveal the name of the person seated next to him at dinner on the ship.
“I’ve read your books, Jeffrey, and I’ve got a story for you!” Archer recalls his neighbor learning over and conspiratorially telling him that night.
Now Archer has written it, even though it is based on what might have been the case two decades ago, his contact (who has retired) is “very nervous.” It hinges on the circumstances of theImperial State Crownbeing out of the Tower of London for the State Opening of Parliament.
“My immediate reaction was to assume that you wouldn’t get anywhere. But that’s not true,” he tells PEOPLE of the plot.
Adrian Cecil
When Archer was back in London, he used his contacts in the world of politics (he worked closely with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the early 1980s and is a life peer in the House of Lords), the palaces and the police to piece together what he hopes is a believable storyline.
Archer got help with his research with his route from the palace to the Tower (the escort apparently takes one of six different ones) from a cab driver who “showed me all along the route how to slow the whole process down between Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London. He gave me another seven minutes,” which was crucial to the plot.
And he consulted a retired warden for some of the inside knowledge of the Tower of London. As a life peer, he could research the House of Lords whereQueen Elizabethwould give her speeches to Parliament himself. “I walked the route where the Queen went, I went to the robing room, went in into the chamber, did everything except sit on the throne," he says.
A key to making the plot believable both to him and his readers was that the Imperial State Crown could be copied — and he enlisted experienced jeweler Alan Gard from London’s Hatton Garden jewelry district to help him. Over 18 months and 500 hours of work, Gard created a likeness of the magnificent crown, using glass for the almost priceless stones in the original. “I was asked to make it good enough so that when you’re five feet away from it, it would be good enough to fool people – or members of the House of Lords,” Gard, 87, tells PEOPLE.
The copy of the Imperial State Crown.Simon Perry
For those who fear that the author, whose bestsellerKane and Abelis on its 132nd reprint, has now opened Pandora’s Box to tempt the unscrupulous, Archer says the information he was told is the circumstances of at least 20 years ago as his tipster doesn’t work close to the royals any more. Moreover, he doesn’t fear opprobrium from the royals, who only in May paraded the jewels at the coronation ofKing CharlesandQueen Camilla.
Alan Gard in his workshop.Simon Perry
That’s because Queen Camilla, 76, reads his book and currently has a copy ofTraitors Gate. “She got it three days ago in Balmoral,” he recently revealed in his penthouse apartment high above the River Thames in London. “I told the Queen, and you can’t get much higher than that."
Archer was also friendly with the latePrincess Diana— and a photograph of her in a silver frame, which she had engraved with a facsimile of her familiar signature, takes pride of place on a side table in his London home. He had got to know her through auctions that helped some of her charities. (He plans to auction off the fake crown soon.)
He says of Princess Diana, “She was very beautiful, very seductive and very cunning. But historically, we all think the same thing: It would’ve been better if [Charles] had married Camilla in the first place. That’s what we all think.”
Jeffrey Archer in his penthouse above the River Thames in London.Simon Perry
“It’s commonly known that she rang me four days, three days before she died, from Paris. And the press would keep coming back and saying, ‘What did she talk about?’ That’s something I just don’t think I can ever say. She rang privately."
“Of course. I didn’t give it a second thought. Because I thought she was gonna live another 30 years. But it suddenly became very relevant to what happened.” He refuses to elaborate on the call.
Another icon of our times, the late Queen Elizabeth, appears in a fleeting but crucial moment in Traitors Gate. Though he met her a few times, he doesn’t claim to have known her. “She has one or two sentences, which I did give a lot of thought to. It’s got to sound like the Queen.”
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source: people.com
