The muse for Caste-Off in Jeffrey Archer’s And Thereby Hangs a Tale, remembers the author who turned her life into a story. Archer passed away on Monday. He was 86.Lord Jeffrey Archer and Dame Mary Archer celebrated their diamond jubilee wedding anniversary two months ago. That day, after the celebratory lunch when everyone else had left, Nisha Jamvwal and her husband KRS Jamwal sat with Jeffrey in the garden of The Old Vicarage in Cambridge where the author made a strange statement: “Adam and Eve is going to be my last book.” The sentence struck Nisha as odd, who considered the author her ‘godfather’. She asked him why he would say so. He replied To Nisha, “I will write short stories. The attention span of people is so low now that they must read short stories. That’s the new way the world is going to go. That’s the way I’m going. This is the last big epic of writing.” She recounts how Archer gave the guests the first chapter of the book as a gift.Looking back now, Nisha wonders whether he knew that it would be their last meeting. “It’s like he had a premonition, why would he say this is his last book?” she muses. “It sounds impossible. It was like his swan song.” To the world, Archer was the master of twists; to Nisha, he was a confidant, a godfather, and the man who turned her life into an international bestseller.The Mumbai-based brand strategist and columnist was the real-life inspiration for Caste-Off, a standout short story in Archer’s collection And Thereby Hangs a Tale. Notably, Nisha and her husband remain the only real Indian people featured under their actual names in Archer’s entire body of work.‘He would call me the ‘miserable one’ out of love’Nisha first met the British author at a dinner about twenty years ago. In a room full of eminent writers and storytellers, it was Nisha’s story that caught his attention – enough to invite her for lunch the next day to hear more about her life. “I nearly felt undeserving, but he was very, very delighted to meet me. ‘You would be even more happy to meet my husband,’ I said to him, and he said, ‘That’s not possible.’ And when he met my husband, Jammie, he said, ‘You’re absolutely right, you miserable one.’ That was his highest level of affection for a person – using the word miserable; typical dry British humour.”
Nisha Jamvwal and KRS Jamwal with Jeffrey and Mary Archer at their diamond jubilee wedding anniversary. “Our relationship was more special than just a father-daughter (relationship). He’s my godfather. Sometimes you take your own children for granted, but he never took me for granted. He never took my husband for granted. He really celebrated us,” she says
Months after their first meeting, Archer surprised her with the draft of a new story. “He read the opening paragraph and asked how I liked the protagonist, ‘Rani.’ I asked who she was, and he said ‘it’s you!’ I told him I wasn’t a Rani. He asked me to choose a few names, but they didn’t work for him. Finally, he smiled and said, ‘Why don’t we just call you Nisha Jamwal then?'” she recalls. Nisha fondly remembers the time she went with Archer to promote the book in London. “I went to London and the book was on the livery of the buses! We released the book there. It was chosen as one of the favourite best sellers of Jeffrey by readers. There was also a limited edition with sketches by Paul Cox that were displayed at London’s Chris Beetles Gallery,” she tells us.In one his later interviews with L’Official Magazine, Archer said that Caste-Off was his “favourite story because it’s genuinely original and unique”. “I am unlikely to come across a love story which is so moving or touching in my lifetime, and I naturally hope it will be made into a Bollywood film,” he said. His wish might just come true as Nisha tells us, “We’ve been looking for the right director. We finally found one just last month. I’m in talks with him and Jeffrey was supposed to come and meet him. But now one of his sons will meet him. It’s probably going to be an Indo-UK project.” She adds, “He was very enamoured by Bollywood, oh gosh, he loved Bollywood.”‘Jeffrey used to celebrate us as his family’Thereafter began a tale, a tale of two families becoming a part of each other’s lives. “Life after the book has been magical because of Jeffrey and Mary’s presence in our lives. Jeffrey became an integral part of my family, he is like a godfather to me.” Nisha also worries about Archer’s wife. “You see Mary is very important (to him)… She’s like a part of Jeffrey. There is no Jeffrey without Mary. And I’m very worried about Mary what she’s going to do without him,” she notes.The two families – Archers and Jamwals – are now part of each other’s celebrations, big and small. “James and William, his sons, are always in touch with my husband. When they come to India, we take them for dinner and lunch. Whenever I used to go to London, Jeffrey would buy stuff for me. Our relationship was more special than just a father-daughter (relationship); he was a godfather to me. Sometimes you take your own children for granted, but he never took me for granted. He never took my husband for granted. He really celebrated us,” shares Nisha. Her family might attend his memorial service.
‘He used to call me the miserable one with love’
‘He was very into what Gen Z and Gen Alpha are doing’On why Archer remains a favourite across generations, Nisha observes, “Because he is very contextual. He’s always picking the minds of people around him. He’s very into people, hearing their stories, talking to them, looking around, and very observant. Jeffrey was sparkling and youthful, and very into what’s going on with Gen Z, Gen Alpha and millennials. Whatever was going on, he was on top of it. He was always had his ear to the ground. He was like this even when I first met him, he’d have hundreds of questions. He was always interested in what’s going on with the world, and even my world.”‘I have so many books to write. There’s very little time’Archer’s entire routine revolved around his writing, as Nisha tells us, “And he would write all of his books with a felt pen. He never used a typewriter.” Recalling the time when the author’s zeal for writing became a game-changing moment for her, she shares, “About 5-6 years ago, I was in London to meet him. But he said there’s no time. And I said, ‘How could you say that you have kept today for me?’ He said, ‘Because I have so many books to write. There’s very little time.’ That is the most important thing he has ever said to me. It changed my vision of life. That there’s very many things that have so much to do. And now with him going away, that’s one of the most important things. For me, it was a game-changer, you know. I never took time for granted after that.”“The world has crashed around me. It’s so painful to think he’s no more,” Nisha voices. Now she lives by what he said to her matter-of-factly: “There’s so much to do and very little time.”