Sir Ranulph Fiennes is still in the news. Where he is still unknown but he is often referred as a national treaure.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes met David Freeman when his book 'The Secret Hunters' was published in 2001.

The book tells the story of a diary that was found in a shelter in Antarctica in 1997. This opens the door to a world of deprivation, war, survival and revenge.

It's a gripping page-turning read, but is it fiction?

There is an article in the Daily Telegraph written by Petra Khasoggi.

When she was a teenager she discovered that her biological father is Jonathan Aitken. It is not a consistently happy story.

We are used to politicians , particularly Tory politicians, being untruthful.

Twenty five years ago Jonathan Aitken was a high profile journalist and Tory politician who found himself in very hot water

He was pursued mercilessly by sections of the British press when they gathered evidence to show that he had encouraged one of his daughters to lie in court to get him out of a tight legal corner into which his own lies had lead him.

He was found guilty and sentenced to a jail term

As a sideshow to his public fall from grace he ran up a huge legal bill which he could not pay. Bankruptcy was inevitable.

Many were sceptical when he 'found God' in jail. He confounded his critics however by sticking with religion and becoming ordained as a vicar. Later he returned to jail as a chaplain.

There was a book published in 2003 called 'Pride and Perjury'. Jonathan Aitken talked to David Freeman about it, and his life, soon after publication.

Jeffery Archer has died.

The obituaries all make reference to his colourful life.

This conversation was recorded in the year 2000.

LIke others that came after him this former vice chairman of the Conservative Party and would be Mayor of London had supreme confidence in his ability to tell lies and then lie his way out of the consequences of the earlier untruths. Jeffery Archer was supremely confident he would always 'get away with it'. The edifice of untruths became unsustainable and eventually collapsed.

The reason for this interview was the publication of a new collection of short stories. The coverage in the tabloids at the time was much more about his relationship with a prostitute and how he persuaded a friend to give her money to go away.

With hindsight his lies were going to send him to prison and I should maybe have asked him about being banished from the Tory party and his payments to sex worker Monica Coghlan. That might have made a more riveting conversation.

What cannot be denied is that he was a very successful author. A supreme storyteller.