Cover stories: Home Office struggles to deal with Archer

It appears that Home Office regulations have yet to catch up with the questions that arise when a bestselling novelist is banged up in prison. Either that, or the HO applies the "one law for the rich" principle that characterises much of life on the outside. Or, perhaps, its staff really don't know how to deal with Jeffrey Archer's sojourn at Her Majesty's Pleasure. Deprivation of liberty has traditionally meant that one is deprived of the right to continue one's normal business. Archer's business has long been that of a novelist. Thus it is puzzling that he was allowed a business meeting (with his agent, Jonathan Lloyd, his new editor at Macmillan, Maria Rejt, and company director Adrian Soar), which resulted in a new contract worth a rumoured £11m. Puzzling, too, that Archer will be able (whether face-to-face or by other means) to work with that editor on his latest novel, Son of Fortune. When quizzed on the subject, the Home Office is evasive, first saying the questions are too general, then that they are too specific. Asked how three visitors were allowed in to discuss business, a spokeswoman agrees that Visiting Orders ask the reasons for a visit, and that business is not supposed to be on the agenda. As to earning a living, she agrees that a prisoner "certainly cannot profit" from crimes. Thus any story that drew on Archer's life (and his life and fiction have always been intertwined) should raise questions. But one interested party suggests that raising such questions would be "unhelpful". Quite.