Jeffrey Archer's prison frenzy

"A Prisoner of birth"-More like a prison diary than a material of fiction...
The book is a story of Daniel Cartwright. Daniel who is in love with Beth(Elizabeth Wilson) takes her to a fancy bar in London to celebrate their engagement. He also invites Bernie(Bernard Wilson), who happens to be Beth's brother and a childhood friend of Danny. They spend their evening at the same bar where Spencer Craig is celebrating his 30th birthday.
The bar then becomes platform for a melodramatic fight between Bernie and Craig. The end result of which leaves Bernie stabbed to death by Craig. Craig, being a criminal lawyer, accompanied by his friends at higher echelons of their career(who call themselves as musketeers), sets up the whole scene to implicate Danny as the accused.
The jury come up with a verdict that makes Danny land up in the Belmarsh prison. The prison is pictured to such a perfection that one might wonder if its the experience rather than imagination that helped Archer do it with such expertise...
Its just a Google away to discover that its the experience along with lots of imagination that make his book such a blockbuster. Jeffrey Archer, a leader of England's Conservative Party was found guilty of lying about his dealings with a prostitute and had been sent to prison. The high security Belmarsh Prison pictured in the book is actually the place where Archer spent his sentence after being charged of perjury.
Jeffrey adds in his book, "If every man who lies about his sex life is to be hauled off to prison, who will be left to govern us?", the true meaning of which is understood after knowing his legal difficulties.
Like most of the fictions, this book contains some miracles. Miracles which are so carefully polished that they hardly looks like one. Kudos to Mr. Archer...
In the book, Danny is put in a cell with Nick & Big Al. Nick(Sir Nicholas Moncrief), a well learned person who's in prison because, as a British Army officer in Kosovo, he took the blame when his men shot some Serbs. Big Al was his sergeant and remains his loyal friend. Nick is Danny's age, and, as we are often reminded, the two men look a great deal alike. High-minded Nick is a teacher in the prison and decides to educate Danny. Almost overnight, the illiterate mechanic(Danny) not only has learned to read and write, but also explores the higher levels of literature and finance.
One more is that when Nick is murdered inside the prison, Danny is able to switch identities with him. Nick was up for parole, and even then Danny convinces everyone he is the aristocratic Sir Nicholas and walks out of prison a free man.
Then Danny lives in a London mansion, consulting with lawyers, parole officer and some bankers.
"Act like Nick, Think like Danny", becomes the motto of Danny's life. Revenge and Re-union become his life objectives. Reevenge against the murderers, Reuniion with Beth.
Careful and tactfully Danny creates a plot that would make the musketeers come down to ashes-professionally and financially after which they one of them plead guilty in the court and are hauled off to prison.

Cynical point of view, the book is a blockbuster.
After knowing the legal difficulties that Archer faced, the melodrama of the book can be regarded a a spiritual rebirth of the author which he manages to bring out with panache.

twilight- A Review

"twilight"- just beyond the usual genre of love and romance that we usually get to read.
As a young adult novel, twilight just takes the reader into its clutches... The story is told in first person mode from the view point of Isabella Swan, the daughter of Chief Swan of Forks town.
Renee, Bella's mom marries Phil (Ball Player-not quite famous though) who travels a lot. This makes Bella decide to move into her Dad's place-The city of Forks, which she doesn't like because of its climate, size and a whole lot of reasons for her to dislike.
The sarcastic voice of Bella continues to narrate the story- about how she feels about the people there, the unintended attention she gets, most of all the climate of the city which contributes the most to her uncomfortable feeling.
Eventually Bella runs into some fiends-Mike, Jessica, Eric, Angela, etc.. who accompany her in most of her classes, cafeteria talks.
Its the description of the Cullen's which actually marks the beginning of the twilight-saga, the love story that most of the readers wish it was real and never want to stop.
The narration of Forks town is made to such a perfection that some readers often feel the snow falling on their roof.
Even as Bella falls hopelessly and irrevocably in love with Edward, she still can’t work out exactly what makes him so different to everyone else. Bella later realizes the fact that the Cullens' inhumanly beauty is due to the fact that they're actually not humans. But this fact does very little to keep Bella away from admiring them, especially Edward Cullen. Current flows only in the path where it is resisted.

The book describes the Cullen's as Vampires. Vampires who have worked out a way to quench their thirst for blood causing the least trouble for humans. But the very smell of blood shoots up their thirst and can drive them crazy (but this seldom happens in the book).
In some places the book gives us a tinge of suspicion of Vampire like qualities in Bella: A scene where Bella almost faints in her Biology class while a blood typing is in progress. "So you faint at the sight of blood?", Edward says trying to hide back a chuckle.


For Edward his love for Bella is quite a delight and a torment as well. A delight, because she is the first person he has loved since he has been a non-human(a vampire to be specific). A torment because the very scent of her is potent of pulling a whole coven of vampires around her. "You are exactly my brand of heroin.", Edward once admits to her in confession.

"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb..." Edward murmurs to Bella.
This line creates a tinge of thought in readers as to who is lion and who is lamb.The inhumanly powerful Vampire? or the feeble Bella?
Even after knowing that anything can happen to her when she is with Edward, Bella does no effort to stay away from him. This qualifies her to be regarded as a lion. But we cant rule out the description of her feeblest physique.
The boundless power of Edward might qualify him for a lion. But still, we cant ignore the fact that the scent of Bella is all it takes to push his self control to the end of it's tether.

To sum up, the book is a delightful journey of the peculiar genre of love story even when each of the readers know that it is a material of perfect fiction...

An Appeal from The Wikipedia Foundation

The Wikipedia is a web based encyclopedia which can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection. With a massive collection of information, the Wikipedia is always growing in terms of its users, authors as well as the informations.
Started in 2001 by Mr. Jimmy Wales, the Wikipedia is functioning as a non-profit making organization. Even today it is living up to its promise. Not even a single ad can we see in any of its pages.
We all have read several pages of wikipedia for various kinds of information we need. Some of us may also have contributed to the bulk of its quality and quantity.
In order to maintain this gigantic establishment, Mr. Jimmy Wales has made an appeal to the donors to make a donation, a small contribution to the Wikipedia whom we've been reading for years.

Visit the fund raising here