A fiction with shades of fact – “The Fourth Estate – Jeffrey Archer”

Recently, I finished reading "The Fourth Estate" by Jeffrey Archer.

It was a nice read – a bit long though. At some places it becomes boring.

The overall storyline is interesting. What is more interesting is its simmilarity to real life media tycoons Rupert Murdoch and Maxwell. There are too many simmilarities to ignore and it looks like the real story has been spiced up and censored wherever required to give it a look of a fiction novel.

Murdoch like Townsend, was born to aristocrat family in Australia and they moved on to United Kingdom and then to USA to conquer the media empire. On the other hand Armstrong like Maxwell followed the trail from war torn Germany to the British army and both ended up in United Kingdom and then in USA to fight the penultimate battle with his arch rival. The incidence of misappropriation of pension funds brings the fiction and real life drama a step closer. However the climax is the way the novel describes the death of Armstrong which is very simmilar to that of Maxwell.

I found it more interesting as I read this book after I saw biography coverage about Maxwell on History Channel (most probably).

Worth a read!

Abhishek