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A Quiver Full of Arrows

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About this listen

 This collection of 12 short stories will draw the listener into each story, whether it is "Old Love", the tale of two undergraduates at Oxford in the 30s and their bitter rivalry, which ends in a memorable love story; or "Broken Routine", which tells of an insurance claim advisor and his surprising encounter on the train home to Sevenoaks; or "Henry's Hiccup", the story of the Grand Pasha and how his plans for the most perfect honeymoon go awry.

From the Grand Pasha to a British diplomat in China, a backgammon match to a one night stand, Jeffrey Archer spins an intricate web of tales that prove he really is the master of storytelling.

©2006 Jeffrey Archer; (P)2006 Macmillan Publishers Ltd Anthologies & Short Stories Romance Short Stories Thriller & Suspense Fiction Suspense

Critic reviews

"Stylish, witty, and constantly entertaining...Jeffrey Archer has a natural aptitude for short stories." ( The Times)
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Some stories were good but not usual usual 5 star rating. Don’t understand cricket which is a drawback

Not so great unfortunately

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Old love and The Chinese statue are lovely stories. The others are ok, but it's great for switching off before going to sleep.

Great for bedtime

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The tales told were a very good cross section of stories from Roman times to the world wars to cricket. These are well written and well worth listening to.

Excellent Shorts

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Martin Jarvis gives a good performance as narrator apart from some slightly suspect foreign accents. The Mexican character sounded very similar to one from any Spaghetti Western you care to mention. I have noticed that Archer loves to make reference to Oxbridge colleges and favours middle class and upper middle class tales. I found the stories to be invariably long and more worryingly invariably boring. There isn't any really convincing twists in the tale. One story tells us about a loving couple who spend their marriage constantly trying to get the upper hand and making humourous jibes at each other. Apparently they never spent more than a couple of hours apart. Sadly when his wife died he committed suicide because he couldn't live without her. Basically that's it. Well told but no surprise ending. The Hungarian professor tale was nicely recounted but had no point to it and felt like Mr. Archer had become bored with the story and couldn't be bothered to finish it. Another story without a great conclusion was the Scottish gentleman who was trying to get a contract with a Mexican politician but was not happy about the amount of his profit he had to give to his colleague. Apparently he had saved his life in the Mexican Revolution. That's it. What a letdown.

Very little surprises in this collection.

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Unfortunately for me, I just do not find them that interesting. The performance was good but the stories seem to be trying to mean something but not quite there. Not for me personally.

It is neither here or there

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