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| | Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Mendacious, ambitious, generous and naive |
 | | Since Jeffrey Howard Archer first bounced into the public eye at Oxford 38 years ago, courtesy of a typically chancy stunt involving the Beatles, he has displayed a bewildering number of public personas, repeatedly faced political and personal ruin and always bounced back. |
 | | Archer was born on April 15 1940 in the City of London maternity hospital, the third child of Lola Cook, a nurse, and William Archer, an irascible chancer almost 40 years her senior. |
 | | Archer also stands accused of lying about his academic credentials, fiddling his expenses at the United Nations Association, fiddling other people's while a member of the GLC, stealing suits in Toronto and insider trading in the shares of Anglia TV, of which his wife was a director. |
| www.guardian.co.uk /archer/article/0,2763,524675,00.html (609 words) |
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