• A Prisoner of Birth

  • By: Jeffrey Archer
  • Narrated by: Roger Allam
  • Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (3,644 ratings)

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A Prisoner of Birth  By  cover art

A Prisoner of Birth

By: Jeffrey Archer
Narrated by: Roger Allam
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Publisher's summary

International bestseller and master storyteller Jeffrey Archer returns with a tale of fate and fortune, redemption and revenge with A Prisoner of Birth.

Danny Cartwright and Spencer Craig never should have met. One evening, Danny, an East End cockney who works as a garage mechanic, takes his fianceé up to the West End to celebrate their engagement. He crosses the path of Spencer Craig, a West End barrister posed to be the youngest Queen's Counsel of his generation.

A few hours later Danny is arrested for murder and later is sentenced to twenty-two years in prison, thanks to irrefutable testimony from Spencer, the prosecution's main witness.

Danny spends the next few years in a high-security prison while Spencer Craig's career as a lawyer goes straight up. All the while Danny plans to escape and wreak his revenge.

Thus begins Jeffrey Archer's poignant novel of deception, hatred and vengeance, in which only one of them can finally triumph while the other will spend the rest of his days in jail. But which one will triumph? This suspenseful novel takes the listener through so many twists and turns that no one will guess the ending, even the most ardent of Archer's many, many fans.

©2008 Jeffrey Archer (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“There's no better person to narrate this 21st-century adventure than Roger Allam…Allam narrates the multiple layers and numerous characters of this complex plot with alacrity. His reading, together with the story's ending, will leave listeners fulfilled.” —AudioFile

“...Roger Allam gives an award-worthy performance in this crisply paced production.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Narrator Roger Allam pumps this story up considerably by enhancing each character with engrossing vocal interpretations. He does a terrific job subtly morphing Danny's East-End accent into an upper-crust West-End one.... Every character in the story draws you in but there's a old Scottish lawyer and a venerable British defense barrister that'll have you cheering.” —Tom Alderman, The Huffington Post

What listeners say about A Prisoner of Birth

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    2,091
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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Performance
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    330
  • 3 Stars
    74
  • 2 Stars
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    6
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    1,052
  • 4 Stars
    415
  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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  • 1 Stars
    13

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Mission Improbable

This is my first Jeffrey Arthur book. The author has hung a modern suspense tale on a framework of classic adventure novels such as Account of Monte Christo. The tale is fast moving but requires the reader to suspend disbelief at extraordinary circumstances and coincidences. If one can do that it's well worth the read.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • R
  • 10-16-08

Archer's Best

I've been hooked on Archer's book since First Among Equals. Prisoner is even more absorbing. I've been so glued to the book that I have frequently driven right buy turns without knowing it.Listening to this book in your car can result in higher gasoline (petrol)consumption. The narration is outstanding. The reader effortlessly slips from cockney to Scottish to American accents. I will not soon forget Danny Cartwright, Big Al, Fraser Monroe and the Barristers Redmane.

As an attorney, I usually believe courtroom scenes are not accurately portrayed. Those in Prisoner absorbed me.

Regardless of how you feel about the justice of Archer's conviction, He certainly could have not been as effective in letting us live through Bellmarsh without that experience. I think his prison description is even better than in the book he wrote about his own incarceration.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

disappointing

I found this book to be disappointing after all of the strong reviews. The author keeps repeating events that happen in the story as if you didn't hear about those events earlier in the book when they were actually taking place. I felt as if I was being talked down to as a reader. Events and feelings of the characters were explicitly explained as if I could not understand the characters actions without the author explaining them.
The actual tale is interesting but I couldn't help but feel it had the potential to be a much better book. I could at most see it being given 3 or 3.5 stars.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely

Jeffrey Archer writes with the experience of one who has been "inside". His accounts are credible even to one who has worked in court and jail.

It's fun to pick out similarities and differences between the British and American legal systems. I myself read for fun, and fun is what I found throughout A Prisoner of Birth, unabridged. Highly recommended reading.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ed
  • 09-21-09

Five stars despite a preposterous premise

If you were never bothered by the premise that Superman could masquerade as Clark Kent without generating undue suspicion, then one of the major premises of this book will not bother you. It did not bother me. All of the characters were well developed and Archer did a spectacular job of bringing them to life. There were plentiful doses of good versus evil and enough plot twists to keep the listener interested. Having never read The Count of Monte Cristo, I wasn't impacted by the parallels in the story. I simply was thoroughly engrossed with the story that Archer weaved and the excellent narration provided by Roger Allam. This book is in the Top Ten of my 125+ Audible listens.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The best

This is definitely one of the best audiobooks that I listened to in the last five years of Audible membership. Not only was it a really good story, but the reader was superb. It is rare that these two elements come together so well. I think that his time in prison has made Archer a better author.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Storytelling at its best

A thoroughly enjoyable listen. Masterful storytelling. Another favorite author, JG, should take note of how Archer, in his latest tale, fully develops his characters and certainly does not let us down at the climax. Intriguing plot. Excellent narration. Best savor the twisty ending for a day or two before listening, if you must, to the author's exceedingly immodest interview.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Cute but not a Montecristo

The book has a few nice turns and keeps you interested. It is not a best seller but the writer has talent. I await another book.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping drama, great read!

From the synopsis I wasn't sure I would like this book even though it was highly rated but since it was so high on te bestseller list I decided to give it a listen. If you enjoy mysteries, suspense, or drama, give it a try and you won't be disappointed. This was one of the best audiobooks I've come across this year. A classic tale of two social classes, with the assumptions that the upper class can do no wrong. All the weight of the law is behind the upper class while those in the lower class are left high and dry. In this case, however, the upperclass gents get a run for their money, a real challenge. The book has plenty of twists and turns and keeps the listener riveted. The only trouble is that I never wanted to put it down and get to sleep. Lost sleep .....

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

More Than My Money's Worth!

This guy Archer is a weaver working on BIG looms. So many threads woven through at what would fill at least three novels by other very competent writers. And at the end, NO LOOSE threads!

The story starts improbably, gets probable, then gets twistingly inevitable even with the necessity of the reader suspending disbelief over the key plot element. Hey... ask me with enough talent and i'll suspend away.

And Roger Allam's talent to create a distinct ensemble (there's a large ensemble cast here) is important in keeping the reader aware, even after the necessary and uneven hours between listening sessions.

I'm hunting for my next Archer book.

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6 people found this helpful