The Fourth Estate

By: Jeffrey Archer

Narrated by: Jonathan Aris

Lubji Hoch escapes from the Nazis, moves to Berlin and changes his name to Richard Armitage. After a successful career in the British Army, he takes over a struggling newspaper and with unrivalled ruthlessness begins building his media empire.

Meanwhile, Keith Townsend, the son of a millionaire and Oxford educated, returns to Australia from London to take over his father's newspaper with similar ambitions.

As both men move their quest for power to the world stage, they realise they are more than a match for one another's brilliance and ambition. Their rivalry leads them to the brink of financial ruin and finally to the ultimate showdown where one will become the world’s most powerful man, and the other will succumb to tragedy.

Based on the rivalry between media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell, this fast-paced, suspenseful thriller full of status, corruption and deceit will captivate fans of Archer's blockbuster Kane and Abel.

The Fourth Estate is narrated by Jonathan Aris, a British television, film and theatre actor. He has appeared in Sherlock, the Night Manager alongside Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie, and played the angelic quartermaster in Good Omens.

Jeffrey Archer is a bestselling British author and former politician. He was educated at Oxford and went on to become a Member of Parliament, the deputy chair of the Conservative Party as well as sitting in the House of Lords. His political career ended in scandal and he turned to writing, where he has been published in over 250 countries.

He is perhaps most famous for the "Clifton Chronicles" and his blockbuster Kane and Abel which was number one on the New York Times Bestseller list and inspired a popular miniseries starring Peter Strauss and Sam Neill.

After he was imprisoned for perjury in 2001, he wrote his highly acclaimed non-fiction series, Prison Diaries - Hell, Purgatory and Heaven - which were inspired by his experiences and loosely structured around Dante’s Inferno.

©2021 SAGA Egmont (P)2021 SAGA Egmont

Good but not great

This started off with a bang and slowly fizzled under the weight of much intrigue about nothing. The narrator deserves points for voicing so many characters, but many of them were less than good.

Exciting, complicated, great narrator

Loved the deep history behind these two newspaper moguls and their (increasingly greedy) thinking. Jonathan Aris is an amazing narrator—so many accents. I kind of felt like the women that were so heavily involved in the businesses faded away half way through.

So disappointed!

I’ve read many books by Jeffrey Archer and I have to say I was very sad this one didn’t stack up against his previous works. It’s a long book, 19 hours and I made it 10 hours before I could stand it no longer.

The story is convoluted, difficult to follow and just not interesting. The narrator does a good job, but I’m sad to say it just wasn’t enough to coerce me into staying the entire way though.

Characters

Great story about two men who take the world by storm. One poor one rich

i HATED THE CHARACTERS

Archer must have something against the press. I would not blame him, but it was awful to watch these characters go from one bad decision to the next. especially the Jewish guy. he started out as an admirable dude and ended up someone you would hate. I absolutely hated these characters and I'm really hoping that any other book I read by Archer isn't anything like this because I wasn't left with any sort of enjoyment when I finished the book.