Lord Archer's colossal ambition won him the kind of literary and political success that brought a worldwide reputation and financial success. But ambition, mixed with an ability to lie, also earned the former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party a reputation for suing anyone who questioned his integrity.
While his novels were often ridiculed as holiday pot-boilers and his dreams of becoming London's mayor fell to pieces, they did not deter Archer from putting on a good show at the Old Bailey.
Week after week of a fascinating perjury trial, Archer, like one of the characters from his novels, sat determined and defiant in the dock. Even as his trusted secretary, Ms Angela Peppiatt, spoke of secret diaries and buying gifts on her credit card for his girlfriend, the principal character was supported by his wife, the "fragrant" Lady Archer, and their two sons, William and James.
The perjury trial had its origins in one of Archer's attempts to convince the public he was an honest man - his 1987 libel trial against the Daily Star which accused him of having sex with a prostitute, Monica Coghlan, in which he won £500,000 in damages.
In 1999, with Archer standing as the Conservative candidate for London mayor, his former friend, Mr Ted Francis, dropped the bombshell that effectively ended his career.
Faced with the prospect of Archer becoming mayor, Mr Francis revealed Archer had persuaded him to provide a false alibi relating to the Star libel trial.
In 1986, Archer was flying high as the darling of the Conservative Party, entertaining on the London circuit and at his fabulous Thames-side apartment. He had reached the apex of his political power.
In November that year, the Daily Star published an article claiming Archer had slept with Ms Coghlan at a small hotel in London on the evening of September 8th-9th. It said he had then arranged for an intermediary to hand over £70 to her at Victoria station on October 24th.
Archer issued a writ for damages soon afterwards, claiming the story was a lie. But it was during the period of disclosure prior to the libel action that the crimes of perjury and perverting the course of justice took place. The initial Star newspaper report alleged Archer and Coghlan had sex on September 8th-9th. But the Star's legal documents relating to the libel trial mistakenly recorded the date of their meeting as the evening of September 9th-10th.
Observing the changed date in the legal documents, Archer recruited his friend and co-defendant, Mr Francis, to help him concoct an alibi for the evening of 9th-10th. Over dinner Archer persuaded Mr Francis that, if he was asked, he should say they had eaten together and paid him £12,000 for agreeing to the subterfuge. Mr Francis always maintained he thought he was providing an alibi to cover up an affair and that it was not to be used for the libel case.
After he stood down as Tory candidate in the London mayoral race in 1999, Archer claimed he had approached Mr Francis because he was trying to conceal the fact that he was having dinner with a close friend. He later claimed the woman was his former secretary, Ms Andrina Colquhoun, with whom he was having an affair. But Ms Colquhoun told the Old Bailey trial she was not with Archer on the night of September 9th-10th but was holidaying on the Greek island of Skiathos.
A few months before the 1987 libel trial began, the date error in the Star's legal documents (which arose after confusion over dates in Ms Coghlan's affidavit) was spotted and the allegation reverted back to the evening of 8th-9th. As a result, Archer no longer needed Mr Francis's alibi and another friend, the theatrical agent, Terence Baker, who has since died, was on hand to say the two had dinner together on the evening of 8th-9th. The two had in fact met the following night but because the date of the allegations had changed, Archer went on to win his case against the Star.
Then there was the question of Archer's office and private diaries for 1986. Archer, the prosecution at the Old Bailey argued, had hidden his A5-size 1986 diary from the jury in the libel trial and had asked Ms Peppiatt to make bogus entries in a forged A4 diary for the days relating to the Coghlan allegations.
Archer chose not to give evidence during the perjury trial. The only time the jury heard his voice was when they were played a taped telephone conversation from November 1999, in which he told Mr Francis: "We've got to be careful, Ted, we don't want to go to a court of law with this."