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It was lovely to see that so many literary editors had shown up, he said, and then added that if anything appeared in the gossip columns the following day he would know where it had come from. Jeffrey Archer making veiled threats about his name appearing in the papers? This from the man who always gave the impression that he feared he didn’t exist if he wasn’t being talked about. A man famed for his arrogance, whose parties were never complete without the invitation of a whole stable of gossip columnists.
But here he is, in his sitting room the morning after the party from which they were banned, an avuncular fellow in a sweater, putting the amazingly swift success of the new novel down to his publishers, rather than to himself. Last Monday, when False Impression came out, it became the second most popular book on Amazon. By Tuesday it was number one and by Thursday a third print run had been ordered.Archer’s comeback has been a highly orchestrated affair.

His first interviews since his release from prison in 2003, after serving two years of a four-year sentence for perjury, were given to the Australian press when his book was launched over there at the end of last year. It’s now sold over 80,000 copies in hardback.It was a gentle easing in by a nation who presumably didn’t feel quite so incensed at his past deeds, which included having to resign as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party following allegations that he attempted to pay off the prostitute Monica Coghlan. He subsequently accepted £500,000 in damages from the Daily Star in July 1987 after he sued them for libel. Given a peerage in 1992, two years later he had to apologise for share dealings in Anglia TV. He was chosen as the official Tory candidate for London Mayor in 1999, but was forced to quit after newspaper allegations that he fabricated an alibi for his 1987 libel case. And finally, in July 2001, his downfall was complete when he was found guilty of perjury and imprisoned.Archer spent last week talking to carefully selected members of the media, who so far have given him a relatively easy ride, much to his surprise. “I was waiting for someone to be snide or unpleasant or to find something Almost without exception they haven’t,” he says.

And, staggeringly, unlike the old days, he won’t be talking again once the publicity tour is over. “Once this book is launched I will go back into my shell and disappear again I like it that way. I’ve got used to it and like it.”His new book is a thriller about the disappearance of a Van Gogh set against the backdrop of 9/11 Art collection is a subject close to his heart. Entering the luxurious confines of his penthouse, you walk through a gallery of Impressionist paintings. He sits on a cream armchair opposite two of his five Lowrys.The novel took him two years and he believes it is his best yet. A previous editor of his claimed that at one stage Archer had dreams of winning the Booker prize There are no such pretensions today “It’s an entertainment.