Writers | Guy Portman's Blog

20 More Quotes About Writing

Feb 23 2018

This week’s post is dedicated to 20 writing-related quotes that have not previously been featured on my blog.

To write, or to Netflix. That is the question – Kat Myley

Saturday night is perfect for writers because other people have “plans” – Mike Birbiglia

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it – Winston Churchill

The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering – Tom Waits

The dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he’s given the freedom to starve anywhere – S.J. Perelman

It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous – Robert Benchley

Drowning in my own words with only a semicolon as a lifeboat – Jessica Baumgartner

I don’t need an alarm clock. My ideas wake me — Ray Bradbury, WD

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it — Elmore Leonard

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate – François-René de Chateaubriand

He’d heard that writers spent all day in their dressing gowns drinking champagne. This is, of course, absolutely true – Terry Pratchett, Snuff

Not all writers are silently suffering inside. But it certainly helps – Joyce Rachelle

Sadly, there are writers who wouldn’t know an umlaut from an omelet – Kevin Ansbro

The only impeccable writers are those who never wrote – William Hazlitt

For writers it is always said that the first twenty years of life contain the whole of experience – the rest is observation – Graham Greene

Writing romantic fiction is the second chance that loved ones denied us – Shannon L. Alder

Don’t break a writer’s heart and think ink won’t spill – Ming D. Liu

Writer’s block’ is just a fancy way of saying ‘I don’t feel like doing any work today – Meagan Spooner

Writing should beguile us, not just take us from A to B to Zzzzz – Kevin Ansbro

Even on the silent days, believe your ship will come – Shana Chartier

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If Authors Were Desserts

Jan 26 2018

Here are twelve authors and the desserts that in my opinion they/their writing corresponds to.

Norman Mailer

Mailer

Cultural criticism, controversy and obscenity were hallmarks of this volatile and violent author.

Corresponding dessert: Fruitcake

Fruit Cake

Rationale: Self-explanatory

Stephanie Meyer

Meyer

Meyer is a young-adult fiction writer responsible for the vampire romance series Twilight.

Corresponding dessert: Sponge Cake

sponge cake

Rationale: It might look like a cake, feel like a cake and smell like a cake, but on taking a bite one realises it’s mostly just air.

Vladimir Nabokov

Nabokov

The intellectual Russian born Nabokov utilised an ornate prose style.

Corresponding dessert: Deconstructed S’more

Deconstructed Smores

Rationale: This sophisticated, deconstructed extravagance contains chocolate-coated cereal garnishes, caramelised vanilla marshmallow and more besides.

L. Ron Hubbard

Hubbard

The Scientology founder wrote numerous Sci-Fi and psychotherapy books.

Corresponding dessert: Waffle

Rationale: The content of Scientology’s doctrine.

Ambrose Bierce

Corresponding dessert: Lemon sorbet

Rationale: Few desserts are more acerbic.

Anne Rice

Rice

The Vampire Chronicles creator is one of the best-selling writers in recent American history.

Corresponding dessert: Jelly

Jelly

Rationale: Right-minded adults steer clear of this puerile dessert.

Bret Easton Ellis

Easton-Ellis

Easton Ellis is a master of social commentary. Much of his writing features vapid, soulless characters.

Corresponding dessert: Lemon Sorbet

lemon

Rationale: This cold, astringent dessert isn’t for everyone. I rather like it.

Dan Brown

Brown

Brown has sold more than 200 million of his mystery/conspiracy novels.

Corresponding dessert: Ring-Shaped Donut

Doughnut

Rationale: These deep-fried snacks have a gaping hole in the middle.

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

English crime novelist Agatha Christie is the best-selling author of all time.

Corresponding dessert: Tunnock’s Teacake

Tea Cake

Rationale: One has to first unwrap the packaging and then bite through the outer layer to reveal what lies beneath.

E. L. James

ELJAmes

Erotica novelist E. L. James is one of the World’s best-selling authors.

Corresponding dessert: Cheesecake

cheese

Rationale: Many, including yours truly, are of the opinion that cheese and cake should not be mixed.

Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy

Iconic Russian writer Tolstoy is best-remembered for his opuses Anna Karenina and War And Peace.

Corresponding dessert: Heavy Cake

Heavy Cake

Rationale: Heavy Cake is dense and requires a lot of chewing, but it tastes good.

Sidney Sheldon

Sidney Sheldon

Chick lit/Thriller author Sheldon is the one of the best-selling authors of all time.

Corresponding dessert: Wafer

Wafer

Rationale: With their primary ingredient being air, wafers won’t satisfy one’s hunger.

20 Bizarre Author-Related Facts

Oct 13 2017

In recent years I have dedicated a number of blog posts to the topic of bizarre author-related trivia. Here are 20 of the most bizarre author facts I have come across to date.

Modernist writer Katherine Mansfield wore a mourning dress to her own wedding.

Zadie Smith spent the best part of 2 years writing and rewriting the first 20 pages of her novel, On Beauty.

William Burroughs accidentally killed his partner Joan Vollmer by shooting her in the head.

There is an asteroid named after Kurt Vonnegut.

J.R.R. Tolkien typed the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy with two fingers.

Dr Seuss included the word ‘contraceptive’ in a draft of his children’s book Hop on Pop to make sure the publisher was concentrating.

It took Helen Hooven Santmyer 50 years to pen And Ladies of the Club.

Dan Brown is a fan of inversion therapy He often hangs upside down in antigravity boots because he claims it helps him relax.

John Boyne claims to have written The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas in only 2 and a half days.

ELIYZABETH YANNE STRONG-ANDERSON is the author of Birth Control Is Sinful in the Christian Marriages and Also Robbing God of Priesthood. Every letter in the book capitalised.

Helen Hoover Santymeyer was 88 when her seminal work And Ladies of the Club was published.

John Steinbeck — Steinbeck was obsessed with pencils, particularly Blackwing 602’s.

American music critic and author Gustav Kobbé’s was out sailing when a seaplane misjudged its descent and struck his boat, killing him.

Vladimir Nabokov had a fixation with index cards. The majority of his novels were written out on cards with a pencil.

Dorothy Parker’s epitaph reads, Excuse my dust

Victor T. Cheney is the author of Castration: The Advantages and the Disadvantages.

In 1912 Ambrose Bierce invented 1 of the earliest emoticons, the snigger point, written as \ ___ /! It was designed to look like a smiling mouth.

Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables contains a sentence that is 823 words long.

Jane Austen never married, but she was engaged for 1 night. She accepted the proposal of marriage 2 weeks prior to her 27th birthday. Austen changed her mind the next day.

Billy Wilder epitaph is, I’m a writer but then nobody’s perfect

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It has been quite some time since I dedicated a post to the topic of authors and the desserts that in my opinion they/their writing corresponds to. Here are 8 authors and their corresponding desserts.

Karl Marx

Corresponding dessert: Guriev Porridge

Rationale: It is widely believed that this frugal Russian dessert was invented by a serf chef.

Ambrose Bierce

Corresponding dessert: Lemon sorbet

Rationale: Few desserts are more acerbic.

Barbara Cartland

Corresponding dessert: Valentine’s Cookies

Rationale: These pink, heart-shaped morsels all taste the same.

James Joyce

Corresponding dessert: Perfect St. Patrick’s Day Cake

Rationale: This decadent, multi-layered cake is made from Guinness, Irish Cream and bittersweet chocolate.

Franz Kafka

Corresponding dessert: Sourdough Cake

Rationale: This dessert offering might not taste sweet, but it does taste good.

Sophie Kinsella

Corresponding dessert: Pink Waffle

Rationale: Pretty, pink desserts containing little more than air are not for everyone.

Jane Austen

Corresponding dessert: Lemon Drizzle Cake

Rationale: This traditional English offering is bitter yet appetising.

Jilly Cooper

Corresponding dessert: Jam Roly Poly

Rationale: This warm, sticky dessert is a staple of the English upper classes.

My Favourite Authors: their best and worst

Jan 13 2017

I have my favourite authors, but that is not to say that I like all of their books. This week’s post is dedicated to what in my humble opinion is the following 4 authors’ best and worst books. Click on the links to read my reviews:

Vladimir Nabokov(April 22nd, 1899 – July 2nd, 1977)

Admittedly I have only read a couple of books penned by the Russian-American author and entomologist.

My favourite: Lolita

The protagonist, Humbert Humbert, is an intellectual with an all-consuming craving for young girls, or nymphets as he refers to them. After his wife leaves him for another man, Humbert Humbert becomes a live-in tutor…(more)

My least favourite: Pnin

Despite having lived in America for many years, conservative and eccentric Russian professor Timofei Pnin has never fully grasped the subtleties of the English language…(more)

Chuck Palahniuk(Born: February 21st, 1962)

I have read many of this iconic transgressive fiction author’s works. Whilst I remain an avid fan, the quality of his books varies markedly in my opinion.

My favourite: Fight Club

The protagonist, who remains nameless, is an insomniac leading a bland corporate existence, investigating accidents for a car company, whose only concern is profit…(more)

My least favourite: Doomed

Doomed is the sequel to Damned and part two of a proposed Dante inspired trilogy. It sees the return of Damned’s protagonist – the plucky, post-life, plump, periphrastic, pubescent progeny of celebrity parents…(more)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn(December 11th, 1918 – August 3rd, 2008)

This controversial Russian author is one of my favourite writers. However…

My favourite: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is a former POW serving a 10 year term in a Gulag on the Kazakh steppe for being a spy. He is innocent. The book chronicles a single day of his existence…(more)

My least favourite: August 1914

Set in the years leading up to The Revolution, this monumental book is Solzhenitsyn’s interpretation of a turbulent period in his country’s history, beginning with the outbreak of World War I…(more)

Bret Easton Ellis (Born: March 7th, 1964)

Easton Ellis achieved cult status for his outstanding works of transgressive fiction. In this reader’s opinion his later books are not as good as his early efforts.

My favourite: American Psycho

American Psycho is a highly controversial novel that brought its young author Bret Easton Ellis instant fame. The book is written from the perspective of a young Wall Street financier, Patrick Bateman…(more)

My least favourite: Lunar Park

Lunar Park is a mock memoir that begins with a parodic account of Bret Easton Ellis’s early fame. The young New York resident’s existence consists of endless parties, casual relationships, spiralling drug use...(more)

Famous Authors’ Bizarre Writing Habits

Nov 18 2016

Many authors have writing habits/routines that could be described as bizarre. Back in 2014 I dedicated a blog post to the subject. This is the second instalment. Here are 8 authors who have/had bizarre writing habits.

Alexandre Dumas — This French writer used different coloured paper for different types of writing. Blue was his colour of choice for fiction, pink for articles, and yellow for poetry.

Ernest Hemingway — Hemingway is one of a number of famous authors who liked/like to write standing up. His preference was to have a typewriter and reading board at chest-height opposite him.

Joan Didion — Literary journalist and novelist Joan Didion spends an hour alone before dinner with a drink, going through what she has written that day. When nearing the end of a book she sleeps in the same room as it.

James Joyce — This eccentric writer wrote in a white coat whilst lying on his stomach in bed. For writing materials he used cardboard and various coloured crayons. Joyce did this because he had poor eyesight. His white coat reflected the light.

Quill2

Friedrich Schiller — German poet Schiller always kept a pile of rotten apples in the drawer of his writing desk. He believed that the aroma inspired him, and that he could not write without it.

Franz Kafka — Kafka’s career left him with little time to write. After work he would rest and eat before commencing writing at 11 p.m. This taxing regime was said to have left him permanently exhausted.

W.H. Auden — This obsessive poet used drugs to balance his routine. He swallowed the amphetamine Benzedrine every morning for 20 years. At night he took the barbiturate Seconal in order to get to sleep.

John Steinbeck — Steinbeck was obsessed with pencils, particularly Blackwing 602’s. Drafts of his books were crafted in pencil, and he always kept 12 perfectly sharpened pencils aligned on his desk. He claimed pencils charged him with invention and energy.

As for me I am prone to wearing ear defenders when writing, to eliminate distracting sounds.

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21 Famous Authors’ Last Words

Oct 02 2015

Here are 21 famous authors’ purported last words. They are presented in chronological order.

Voltaire (1694–1778) – On his deathbed when asked by the priest to renounce Satan, Voltaire allegedly said, ‘Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies.’

Jane Austen (1775–1817) – When her sister, Cassandra, asked the dying author if she wanted anything, Jane Austen replied, ‘Nothing, but death.’

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) – ‘Now I shall go to sleep. Goodnight.’

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) – The Victorian poet was close to death when her husband enquired as to how she felt. Browning replied, ‘Beautiful.’ She then passed away.

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) – ‘Moose. Indian.’ Perhaps not the most rational last words ever uttered, but apt, considering the subject matter of Thoreau’s writing.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) – ‘So, this is death. Well!’

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) – ‘This is the fight of day and night. I see black light.’

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) – ‘Let us go in; the fog is rising.’

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) – Immediately after Chekhov told his wife that he was about to die, he purportedly picked up a glass of champagne and said, ‘It’s a long time since I drank champagne.’ After drinking the glass, he died.

Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) – The Norwegian playwright and poet allegedly uttered his last words to a nurse, who commented that he seemed to be improving. Ibsen said, ‘Tvertimod!’ (‘On the contrary!’) He then died.

O. Henry (1862–1910) – ‘Turn up the lights, I don’t want to go home in the dark.’

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) – ‘But the peasants…how do the peasants die?’

Saki (1870 –1916) – Immediately prior to being killed by a sniper’s bullet in a First World War trench, the author allegedly said, ‘Put that bloody cigarette out.’

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) – Suffering from tuberculosis, Kafka demanded his doctor give him an overdose of morphine. He shouted, ‘Kill me, or else you are a murderer!’ These were his last words.

J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) – Prior to dying of pneumonia the Peter Pan author said, ‘I can’t sleep.’

James Joyce (1882 –1941) – ‘Does nobody understand?’

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) – ‘Dying is easy, comedy is hard.’

Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953) – ‘I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room, and God damn it, died in a hotel room.’

Walter De La Mare (1873–1956) – ‘Too late for fruit, too soon for flowers.’

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) – ‘A certain butterfly is already on the wing.’ Fitting last words for a lepidopterist.

Truman Capote (1924–1984) – ‘It’s me, it’s Buddy… I’m cold.’

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My 3 novels include the satirical black comedy Necropolis. It is about a sociopath who works for the burials and cemeteries department in his local council.

10 Famous Authors’ Day Jobs

Sep 18 2015

This week’s blog post is dedicated to famous authors’ day jobs. Whether it is/was due to financial necessity, or through choice, many authors have/had other careers.

Here are 10 famous authors and their day jobs.

Bram Stoker – (1847 – 1912) – Stoker is best remembered for his seminal work Dracula, but he also wrote 11 other novels and 3 collections of short stories. The author spent 27 years working as an acting manager and business manager for Irving’s Lyceum Theatre in London.

Joseph Conrad – (1857 – 1924) – Many of Joseph Conrad’s works have a nautical theme. This is not surprising considering that the author had a 19 year career in the merchant-marine, which began when he left his native Poland as a teenager in 1874.

Lewis Carroll – (1832 – 1898) – The author of the children’s classics Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass was a brilliant mathematician, who produced numerous books on the subject. Carroll also had stints working as an artist, photographer and Anglican cleric.

Agatha Christie – (1890 – 1976) – It was during World War I that prolific author Agatha Christie began writing detective stories. At the time she was employed as an apothecary’s assistant. Her knowledge of poisons was to come in useful in her detective stories.

Herman Melville – (1819 – 1891) – Although the author of Moby-Dick had some success with his writing in his younger years, money problems meant that he was forced to work for much of his life. Melville was employed as a customs inspector in New York for 19 years.

Arthur Conan Doyle – (1859 – 1930) – The creator of Sherlock Holmes was an important figure in the field of crime fiction. Doyle was also a practicing doctor, whose field of expertise was ophthalmology. He quit medicine to concentrate on writing full time.

Virginia Woolf – (1882 – 1941) – Woolf is regarded as one of the greatest literary innovators Britain has produced. To escape publishing houses creative restraints, Woolf and her husband started their own publishing house, Hogarth Press. In addition to her works, they published Russian translations and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.

Franz Kafka – (1883 -1924) – Kafka did not receive much acclaim for his writing efforts during his lifetime. The iconic author worked in various occupations, including being employed at an insurance firm. In 1911, Kafka co-founded Prague’s first asbestos factory.

Vladimir Nabokov – (1899 – 1977) – The Russian born Nabokov was an author, chess composer and lepidopterist (someone who specialises in the study of moths & butterflies). At once time Nabokov was the curator of the moth and butterfly collection at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Harper Lee – (Born: 1926) – The reclusive Harper Lee always wanted to be a writer, but in her younger years she earned a living through other endeavours. Lee had a 8 year stint working as an airline ticket agent before quitting to concentrate on her writing.

6 Writers Who Went Into Hiding

Sep 04 2015

This week sees the latest instalment in my famous author series. Prior to researching this subject matter I was only aware of 2 writers who had gone into hiding, but I soon discovered there were/are many more.

Here are 6 writers who went into hiding:

Samuel Beckett (April 13th 1906 – December 22nd 1989)

Irish born avant-garde novelist, playwright and poet Samuel Beckett is regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century. His accolades include having won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. Beckett spent most of his adult life in Paris. When Germany occupied Paris in 1940, Beckett joined the French Resistance. In 1942 Beckett’s unit was betrayed. He fled to the village of Roussillon, where he continued assisting the resistance effort, as well as working on his novel Watt.

Salman Rushdie (Born: June 19th 1947)

Salman Rushdie’s second novel, Midnight’s Children, won the Booker Prize in 1981. His fourth book, The Satanic Verses (1988), caused controversy from the outset. The title of the book was deemed offensive by many Muslims, as it refers to a number of allegedly pagan verses, temporarily included in the Qur’an and later removed. When the Supreme Leader of Iran, The Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a Fatwa against the author in January 1989, Rushdie was rushed into the protective custody of Special Branch.

Anne Frank
(June 12th 1929 – February/March 1945)

Anne Frank was a member of a Jewish family, who spent 2 years hiding in concealed rooms behind a bookcase in a building in Amsterdam. During this period Anne kept a diary chronicling her life. When her family was betrayed Anne Frank and her sister Margot were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died, most likely as a result of typhus. However, her wartime diary, The Diary of a Young Girl, survived. It was first published in the UK and US in 1952.

Hamed Abdel-Samad (Born: February 1st 1972)

Hamed Abdel-Samad is a German-Egyptian historian, political scientist and author, who in his youth was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He later became an atheist. His autobiography, Mein Abschied vom Himmel (My Farewell from Heaven), provoked anger in his home country of Egypt. When a fatwa was issued against the author he was placed under police protection. As a result of continued death threats, Abdel-Samad has spent time in hiding. Not surprisingly he does not list a location on his Twitter profile @hamed_samad.

Juan Tomás Avila Laurel (Born: 1966)

Juan Tomás Avila Laurel is an Equatorial-Guinean novelist, short story writer and poet. Laurel’s writing has been highly critical of his country’s political and economic landscape. This has not endeared him to all in Equatorial Guinea, one of the World’s most repressive regimes. His disgust with his country’s government led him to move to Spain, but after his asylum application was refused he returned home. Concern over potential persecution from Equatorial Guinea’s security forces have forced Avila Laurel to go into hiding.

Taslima Nasreen (Born: 25 August 1962)

Bangladeshi author and poet Taslima Nasreen became a controversial figure in her home country due to her feminist views and criticism of religion. In 1993 a fatwa was issued against her. The following year she fled to West Bengal. 8 years later concerns for her safety culminated in Nasreen going into hiding in New Delhi. In 2015 death threats from Islamic extremists resulted in the author moving to the US. She has not been able to return to Bangladesh, or her adopted home of West Bengal.

10 Writers Who Went To Prison

Jul 31 2015

The following writers all spent time in prison. They are presented in chronological order.

Sir Thomas More More (February 7th 1478 – July 6th 1535)

Sir Thomas More was an English statesman, philosopher, author and Lord High Chancellor of England (October 1529 – May 1532). More was the author of the popular novel Utopia (1516). Utopia is about the political system of an ideal, imaginary country. More was imprisoned due to his opposition to Henry VIII’s split from the Catholic Church. After serving time in a number of prisons, including the Tower of London, he was beheaded.

Miguel de Cervantes (September 29th 1547 – April 22nd 1616)

Miguel de Cervantes was a Spanish poet, playwright and novelist, whose influence on the Spanish language was so considerable that Spanish is sometimes referred to as la lengua de Cervantes (the language of Cervantes). Cervantes was working as a purchasing agent for the Spanish navy when a banker he had deposited Crown funds with went bankrupt. This led to Cervantes’s imprisonment. It was during this time that he begun working on his seminal work, Don Quixote.

Voltaire(November 21st 1694 – May 30th 1778)

Voltaire was a satirical polemicist, whose voluminous writing output included novels, poems, plays and essays. His most famous work is the satirical novella Candide. Voltaire was renowned both for his wit and scathing criticism of the Catholic Church. Punishments for his controversial views included periods of exile, in addition to several stints in prison. Voltaire spent 11 months imprisoned in the notorious Bastille.

Fyodor Dostoevsky(November 11th 1821 – February 9th 1881)

Russian novelist and short story writer Fyodor Dostoevsky is best remembered for his novels Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoyevsky served 8 years in a Siberian labour camp. His crime was being found guilty of circulating essays that were deemed to be critical of the government. During his time in the camp, Dostoyevsky began working on his novella, Notes from Underground.

Oscar Wilde(October 16th 1854 – November 30th 1900)

Oscar Wilde was a flamboyant writer, poet and playwright, acclaimed for his enduring wit and writing abilities. At the height of his fame Wilde was a very successful playwright. In 1895 Wilde was arrested for gross indecency with other men. This culminated in a guilty verdict. Wilde was imprisoned first in Pentonville Prison and later at Wandsworth Prison, where prisoners were required to do hard labour.

O.Henry(September 11th 1862 – June 5th 1910)

Henry was a renowned and prolific short story writer. In the 10 years prior to his demise he published over 300 stories. Having been convicted of embezzlement, O. Henry was given a 5 year sentence in 1898, which he served at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. As he was a licensed pharmacist he was employed in the prison hospital. There is no evidence that he spent any time in the prison’s cellblock.

Chester Himes (July 29th 1909 – November 12th 1984)

Himes was an American author who wrote If He Hollers Let Him Go, as well as a series of Harlem Detective novels. In 1958 he won France’s Grand Priz de Littérature Policière. Himes served 7 1/2 years in the Ohio State Penitentiary after being found guilty of armed robbery. It was during his incarceration that Himes began writing short stories. Later he was employed briefly as a Hollywood screenwriter.

Joan Henry

(April 8th 1914 – 2000)

Joan Henry was an English novelist, screenwriter and playwright. Born into a wealthy and prestigious family, her life was to change markedly when she was jailed for passing a fraudulent cheque in 1951. Her best-known works are based on her time in prison. The most famous is Who Lie in Gaol. The book went on to become a bestseller. It spawned a film titled The Weak and the Wicked.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
(December 11th 1918 – August 3rd 2008)

Russian novelist and historian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was an ardent critic of the Soviet regime. It was his writing that first brought global attention to the Gulag. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In February 1945, whilst serving in the Red Army, he was arrested for having made a derogatory comment about Stalin. Solzhenitsyn was sentenced to an 8 year term in a labour camp.

Jeffrey Archer (Born April 15th 1940)

Jeffrey Archer is an English author and former politician, who has sold over 250 million books. When, in 1974, a financial scandal left Archer almost bankrupt, he resigned as a Member of Parliament. Later he became deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. His political career ended with his conviction and imprisonment for perjury and perverting the course of justice. On July 21st 2003 Archer was released, having served half of his sentence.

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20 More Quotes About Writing

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If Authors Were Desserts

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20 Bizarre Author-Related Facts

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Authors As Desserts V

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My Favourite Authors: their best and worst

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Famous Authors’ Bizarre Writing Habits

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21 Famous Authors’ Last Words

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10 Famous Authors’ Day Jobs

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6 Writers Who Went Into Hiding

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10 Writers Who Went To Prison

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