Paul Cannell
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- 7 Dec 2017
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I exchanged pleasantries with Archer a few times back in the very late 1980s (or it may have been very early 1990s).
My company were involved in the refurbishment of a large building called Thames House, which was the HQ for MI5. It was a fascinating project, and the architects set up a project office on the opposite side of the Thames, in a 1960s office block called Alembic House. As I was heading up our side of it I would frequently be at meetings there. It was a very nondescript building, apart from the top two floors which were Archer's London penthouse apartment. He had his own private lift and the apartment had panoramic views along the Thames including the Houses of Parliament. It's apparently been used in films, including I think, a James Bond one.
The lobby area was very plush, even though the main building wasn't, and a few times Archer was just hanging around the lobby on his own (maybe waiting for a car to pick hime up or something?) and after a while he would chat when he saw me, and was surprisingly quite pleasant. This was, of course, before we all knew he was a wrong'un!!!
If only he'd told me he knew you Paul. I could have ingratiated myself further with him and he might have invited me up to the penthouse to peruse his memoirs.....
Probably 1989. Jeff spent most of his time in the Alembic lobby that year after the demonstrations against The Satanic Verses, which he ghost-wrote for 'Dear little Sally', and the Fatwa issued later that year. He was terrified his involvement would go public and the Moslems would target his flat with one of the suicide planes that Stella had told him they had 'standing by'.
God, that girl used to come out with some whoppers after she'd had a few. Of course Jeff was completely credulous, being a total egomaniac. BTW - did you ever meet any of the girls she used to send down from the typing pool with Jeff while he was skulking in the lobby? He used to send the porter on errands and they'd 'do it' in the old boys' cubby-hole.
Halcyon days, eh?
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