Jeffrey Archer passed away this week. I don’t know much about his personal or political life; I want to write about my experience with his books.

A bit of my background: I started reading books at a very young age. Back then, I mostly read in my mother tongue, Malayalam. My English comprehension wasn’t great in school. But I read books like Harry Potter, even though I understood only about 10% of it at the time. I later read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in Malayalam and realized how much I hadn’t understood.

My first encounter with Jeffrey Archer was through my father. He heard about one of his books from someone. I don’t know exactly how the conversation went, but someone who was reading it mentioned that the book was much better than Harry Potter.

That comparison doesn’t make sense when I think about it now; the book was A Prison Diary, this is Archer’s non-fiction account of his life in prison, while Harry Potter is a work of fiction.

Anyway, my father knew how much I loved reading. He also knew that I read Harry Potter. Although he didn’t know anything about Jeffrey Archer or English books, he went to a bookstore and bought the book for me. That was so nice of him.

But sadly, the book was beyond my reading level at the time. I was already struggling with Harry Potter; I couldn’t keep up with the pace and had to put it down.

As the years passed, I picked up more English books and started understanding better. I also started having more real-life conversations in English, at my college and later at work.

Almost a decade passed before I picked up another book by Jeffrey Archer. I started reading Only Time Will Tell, the story of Harry Clifton, his life as a young kid, and his struggles with school and the people around him.

I finished the book and loved it. The book was an easy read, although some characters were complicated. I didn’t stop with the first book. I read all seven books in the series twice.

This was the second series I finished, and it had seven books, and the protagonist’s name is Harry. Combine that with what the guy said about the other book being better than Harry Potter, and I feel that is a funny coincidence.

Why did I love the series? I loved the characters, not just Harry Clifton. The story has good and bad people, and the entire series felt like watching a Movie. Here is something I wrote in my original review:

I loved the characters, especially Maisie Clifton, Captain Jack Tarrant (Old Jack), and Emma Barrington; they prove how passionate and true a love can be as a mother, a mentor, and a lover, respectively. I loved Harry and Emma as a couple.

Harry Potter is one of my favorites, and I have read the entire series at least four times; much more than Clifton Chronicles. Over the years, I’ve realized that if someone says one book is better than another, that point is completely subjective.

I am older now and have more experience reading fiction and non-fiction. It feels like the right time to pick up A Prison Diary and see it from that reader’s perspective to understand why he thought it was better than Harry Potter.