Archer Jeffrey, “The Fourth Estate”

Jeffrey Archer is undoubtedly one of the most known British barons, though for me he’s mostly known for his literary work, not the political one. After all, his books – even if old – are unforgettable and truly universal. No, he’s not any kind of philosopher, he’s writing mostly books with good sensational plots.

The one I am going to present you now is particularly interesting for me, as it touches the subject of journalism, which interests me a lot.

Basically we have two heroes – Richard Armstrong and Keith Townsend.
One of them is a boy with Jewish heritage who lives in a very little village somewhere in Europe until the day when the second World War begins and he is forced to run away in order to save his life. He has to work everything out on his own and to manage to survive with almost no help.
On the other hand, second boy is a son of Australian media magnate and doesn’t need to strive for money nor titles, since he already has them.
What could possibly connect those two, so different, characters? Well, they both strive for being famous and the greatest in the world, they both love risk. And when their influences meet, it’s not a very positive meeting.

The book itself is rather about the big world of business from perspective of two men who have different stories to tell. Two histories, which at the beginning don’t seem to have anything in common but throughout the book they swiftly reach each other, finishing in the end with one – the story about the business, determination, reaching your goals and many other things.
Mainly though it’s all about power, about being the First with big F. Two great men don’t want to be called “one of the most powerful men”. They want to be called “most powerful man”. And that makes a big difference for them for their families, for their neighbourhood… and for the world.

Why “The Fourth Estate”? Well, journalists are unofficially called the Fourth Estate, the fourth power… Because they can make history in their newspapers, by taking their photos and by telling their own opinions. A bit of it is showed in this book as well.

All in all, the book is definitely worth a read, to understand some mechanism of gaining power and failing, to see how little things can lead to a bigger picture and… to enjoy 😉

A curious fact is that Polish illustrators apparently thought of comparing these two stories to the game of the chess.

Well, I have to admit that a Polish version of book cover feels more appropriate, comparing to the content of it. And what are your thoughts about this?