Lord Archer receives more than 1,000 emails every week, from readers and fans asking for advice and tips.

“I always tell people to write about what they know,” he says. “I write about things I’ve experienced in my life. Art, politics, my love of sport; that all comes through in my writing. But there is no substitute for hard work.”

Before becoming an author, Lord Archer embarked on a political career, and was elected as a Member of Parliament for the Lincolnshire constituency of Louth in 1969, at the age of 29. He served as a Conservative MP until 1974 before re-entering politics in 1999, when he was selected as the official Conservative Party candidate for London’s Mayor. Lord Archer later withdrew his candidacy, having been charged with perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

He was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and released two years later. In 2003, 2004 and 2005, Lord Archer published three prison diaries, entitled Hell, Purgatory and Heaven respectively. The memoirs follow his journey from initial incarceration in a double-A category prison to a medium security unit, before his eventual release on parole.

Lord Archer now lives in London with his wife, Mary, whom he married in 1966. Together the couple have two sons.

n Lord Jeffrey Archer talk and signing, Cheap Street Church, Sherborne, Monday, September 2, 12.30pm. Tickets cost £20, including a free signed copy of Nothing Ventured, and are available from Winstone’s, 8 Cheap Street, Sherborne.

For more information about Jeffrey’s life and literary works, visit www.jeffreyarcher.co.uk