The Clifton Chronicles Books in Order By Jeffrey Archer
Some people standby you in your darkest hour while others walk away; only a select few march towards you and become even closer friends.
― Jeffrey Archer, Only Time Will Tell
- Only Time Will Tell (2011)
- The Sins of the Father (2012)
- Best Kept Secret (2013)
- Be Careful What You Wish For (2014)
- Mightier Than the Sword (2015)
- Cometh the Hour (2016)
- This Was a Man (2016)
What is The Clifton Chronicles about?
The Clifton Chronicles follows the family of the Clifton’s through a multi-generational saga during the twentieth century, beginning during the end of the First World War. We follow Harry Clifton from Europe to America, exploring many of the countries along the way, and uncovering his family’s secrets, which sometimes are best left in the dark.
Who is Jeffrey Archer?
Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare was born on 15th of April in 1940. He is an English novelist, life peer, former politician and a convicted criminal. Before he became an author, Archer was a politician and served as a Member of Parliament for Louth in Lincolnshire for the conservative party from 1969-1974. He did not seek re-election due to a financial scandal that had left him almost bankrupt. He was able to revive his fortunes as a novelist. Kane and Abel remains one of the best-selling books in the world, with an estimated 34 million copies sold worldwide; altogether, his books have sold more than 320 million copies worldwide, and have been translated into 33 different languages.
He is married to Mary Archer, a scientist who specialises in solar power.
If you make a deal with a fool, don’t be surprised when they act foolishly.
― Jeffrey Archer, Only Time Will Tell
The Order
The Clifton Chronicles are best read in the publication order. They all follow on from each other, with a clear overlining character development and the situations they find themselves in.
WARNING: There will be spoilers for some of the books mentioned. These are taken from the official descriptions but can sometimes spoil huge parts of previous books. So please be careful!
- Only Time Will Tell (2011)
The Clifton Chronicles #1
117,025 words, 400 pages, 7hrs 50mins to read.
Published by Macmillan
4.10 out of 5 on Goodreads
The epic tale of Harry Clifton’s life begins in 1920, with the words “I was told that my father was killed in the war.” A dock worker in Bristol, Harry never knew his father, but he learns about life on the docks from his uncle, who expects Harry to join him at the shipyard once he’s left school. But then an unexpected gift wins him a scholarship to an exclusive boys’ school, and his life will never be the same again.
As he enters into adulthood, Harry finally learns how his father really died, but the awful truth only leads him to question, was he even his father? Is he the son of Arthur Clifton, a stevedore who spent his whole life on the docks, or the firstborn son of a scion of West Country society, whose family owns a shipping line?
This introductory novel in Archer’s ambitious series The Clifton Chronicles includes a cast of colorful characters and takes us from the ravages of the Great War to the outbreak of the Second World War, when Harry must decide whether to take up a place at Oxford or join the navy and go to war with Hitler’s Germany. From the docks of working-class England to the bustling streets of 1940 New York City, Only Time Will Tell takes readers on a journey through to future volumes, which will bring to life one hundred years of recent history to reveal a family story that neither the reader nor Harry Clifton himself could ever have imagined.
2. The Sins of the Father (2012)
The Clifton Chronicles #2
94,695 words, 352 pages, 6hrs 20mins to read
Published by Macmillan
4.09 out of 5 on Goodreads
Only days before Britain declares war on Germany, Harry Clifton, hoping to escape the consequences of long-buried family secrets, and forced to accept that his desire to marry Emma Barrington will never be fulfilled, has joined the Merchant Navy.
But his ship is sunk in the Atlantic by a German U-boat, drowning almost the entire crew. An American cruise liner, the SS Kansas Star, rescues a handful of sailors, among them Harry and the third officer, an American named Tom Bradshaw. When Bradshaw dies in the night, Harry seizes on the chance to escape his tangled past and assumes his identity.
But on landing in America, he quickly learns the mistake he has made, when he discovers what is awaiting Bradshaw in New York. Without any way of proving his true identity, Harry Clifton is now chained to a past that could be far worse than the one he had hoped to escape.
3. Best Kept Secret (2013)
The Clifton Chronicles #3
105,300 words, 373 pages, 7hrs 5mins to read.
Published by Macmillan
4.02 out of 5 on Goodreads
- The vote in the House of Lords as to who should inherit the Barrington family fortune has ended in a tie. The Lord Chancellor’s deciding vote will cast a long shadow on the lives of Harry Clifton and Giles Barrington.
Harry returns to America to promote his latest novel, while his beloved Emma goes in search of the little girl who was found abandoned in her father’s office on the night he was killed.
When the General Election is called, Giles Barrington has to defend his seat in the House of Commons and is horrified to discover who the Conservatives select to stand against him. But it is Sebastian Clifton, Harry and Emma’s son, who ultimately influences his uncle’s fate.
In 1957, Sebastian wins a scholarship to Cambridge, and a new generation of the Clifton family march onto the page. After Sebastian is expelled from school, he unwittingly becomes caught up in an international art fraud involving a Rodin statue that is worth far more than the sum it raises at auction. Does he become a millionaire? Does he go to Cambridge? Is his life in danger?
4. Be Careful What You Wish For (2014)
The Clifton Chronicles #4
109,045 words, 387 pages, 7hrs 15mins to read
Published by Macmillan
4.11 out of 5 on Goodreads
When Ross Buchanan is forced to resign as chairman of the Barrington Shipping Company, Emma Clifton wants to replace him. But Don Pedro Martinez intends to install his puppet, the egregious Major Alex Fisher, in order to destroy the Barrington family firm just as the company plans to build its new luxury liner, the MV Buckingham.
Back in London, Harry and Emma’s adopted daughter wins a scholarship to the Slade Academy of Art where she falls in love with a fellow student, Clive Bingham, who asks her to marry him. Both families are delighted until Priscilla Bingham, Jessica’s future mother-in-law, has a visit from an old friend, Lady Virginia Fenwick, who drops her particular brand of poison into the wedding chalice.
Then, without warning, Cedric Hardcastle, a bluff Yorkshireman who no one has come across before, takes his place on the board of Barringtons. This causes an upheaval that none of them could have anticipated, and will change the lives of every member of the Clifton and Barrington families. Hardcastle’s first decision is who to support to become the next chairman of the board: Emma Clifton or Major Alex Fisher? And with that decision, the story takes yet another twist that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
5. Mightier Than the Sword (2015)
The Clifton Chronicles #5
120,125 words, 400 pages, 8hrs to read.
Published by Macmillan
4.17 out of 5 on Goodreads
When Harry arrives in New York, his publisher Harold Guinzberg tells him he has been elected as the next president of English PEN, which will give him the opportunity to launch a campaign for the release of a fellow author, Anatoly Babakov, who is languishing in a Russian Gulag in Siberia. His crime, writing a book Uncle Joe, which gives an insight into what it was like to work for Josef Stalin. So determined is he to see Babakov released, Harry puts his own life in danger.
Emma Clifton, now Chairman of Barrington Shipping, is having to face the repercussions of the IRA bombing her ship.
Some board members feel she should resign while others, including Sebastian Clifton, newly elected to the board, are determined to see she remains as Chairman.
Giles Barrington is now a Minister of the Crown, and looks set for high office, but a trip to East Germany does not end as a diplomatic success, and once again Giles’ political career is thrown off balance by none other than Major Alex Fisher. Fisher decides to stand against Giles at the forthcoming general election. But this time who wins?
Sebastian Clifton asks his girlfriend Samantha to marry him. She happily accepts, but then later changes her mind after she discovers what Seb has been up to behind her back.
6. Cometh the Hour (2016)
The Clifton Chronicles #6
121,365 words, 404 pages, 8hrs 5mins to read
Published by Macmillan
4.20 out of 5 on Goodreads
Cometh the Hour opens with the reading of a suicide note, which has devastating consequences for Harry and Emma Clifton, Giles Barrington and Lady Virginia.
Giles must decide if he should withdraw from politics and try to rescue Karin, the woman he loves, from behind the Iron Curtain. But is Karin truly in love with him, or is she a spy?
Lady Virginia is facing bankruptcy, and can see no way out of her financial problems, until she is introduced to the hapless Cyrus T. Grant III from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who’s in England to see his horse run at Royal Ascot.
Sebastian Clifton is now the Chief Executive of Farthings Bank and a workaholic, whose personal life is thrown into disarray when he falls for Priya, a beautiful Indian girl. But her parents have already chosen the man she is going to marry. Meanwhile, Sebastian’s rivals Adrian Sloane and Desmond Mellor are still plotting to bring him and his chairman Hakim Bishara down, so they can take over Farthings.
Harry Clifton remains determined to get Anatoly Babakov released from a gulag in Siberia, following the international success of his acclaimed book, Uncle Joe. But then something unexpected happens that none of them could have anticipated.
7. This Was a Man (2016)
The Clifton Chronicles #7
118,885 words, 416 pages, 7hrs 55mins to read
Published by Macmillan
4.32 out of 5 on Goodreads
In Whitehall, Giles Barrington discovers the truth about his wife Karin from the Cabinet Secretary. Is she a spy or a pawn in a larger game? Harry Clifton sets out to write his magnum opus, while his wife Emma completes her ten years as Chairman of the Bristol Royal Infirmary, and receives an unexpected call from Margaret Thatcher offering her a job. Sebastian Clifton becomes chairman of Farthings Kaufman bank, but only after Hakim Bishara has to resign for personal reasons. Sebastian and Samantha’s talented daughter Jessica is expelled from the Slade School of Fine Art, but her aunt Grace comes to her rescue. Meanwhile, Lady Virginia is about to flee the country to avoid her creditors when the Duchess of Hertford dies, and she sees another opportunity to clear her debts and finally trump the Cliftons and Barringtons.
The sign of a great man is how you handle defeat. – Old Jack
― Jeffrey Archer, Best Kept Secret
Overall
In The Clifton Chronicles, Jeffrey Archer manages to successfully navigate the themes of love, loss and betrayal. He takes the reader across the world from Bristol to New York, and even to the Gulags of Russia. Following the characters through different decades and generations of the family.
As an added bonus, if you enjoyed these books then we suggest reading his latest series, Detective William Warwick, as you may find some familiar faces popping back up in that series!
If you have enjoyed any of Jeffrey Archer’s work and want to learn more about his or any other of his work, then feel free to check out his website or you can give him a follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Which one is your favourite or most looking forward to picking up next?
Let us know!
Happy reading!
You see, the problem with being a bully is that on the flipside of that particular coin, you’ll find the imprint of a coward.
― Jeffrey Archer, The Sins of the Father
The Clifton Chronicles Total Word Count and More!
- Total words: 786,440 words
- Total pages: 2,732 pages
- Total reading time: 52hrs 25mins
More of the same, but different:
For More of Anything:
Things to Note:
- Word count is an approximation.
- Amount of pages may differ due to different publications, font style and/or size etc.
- Time spent reading is generally an approximation based on the word count and the average reading time. The average reader will read 250 WPM (Words Per Minute).
- This is the original publisher of the books.
- The current Goodreads score at the time of writing.
- For more information on word lengths and what they mean, check out our handy guide here.
Leave a Reply