Only Time Will Tell was published by Macmillan in 2011, beginning the Clifton Chronicles — Archer’s most ambitious project, a seven-volume saga following Harry Clifton and the Barrington family from 1920s Bristol through six decades of British and world history. Harry, born into poverty in the Bristol docks, believes his father was a stevedore killed in the Great War. A scholarship to the elite Bristol Grammar School introduces him to Giles Barrington, whose wealthy family has connections to Harry’s past that neither boy understands.
The novel establishes the central mystery (who is Harry’s real father?) and the central relationship (Harry and Giles, whose friendship is complicated by class and family secrets) that will drive seven volumes. The Bristol setting — the docks, the shipping lines, the rigid class structure — provides a specific social world rendered with affection and detail.
The Clifton Chronicles
The seven-volume Clifton Chronicles represents Archer’s most ambitious literary project — a multi-generational saga in the tradition of Galsworthy’s Forsyte Saga and Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time, though executed in Archer’s characteristically propulsive commercial style. The series collectively sold millions of copies and demonstrated Archer’s undiminished commercial appeal in his seventies.
Collecting Only Time Will Tell
First edition (Macmillan, London, 2011): Boards with dust jacket.
Approximate market values:
- Fine in dust jacket: $20–$40
- Very good: $10–$20
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation. Collectors seek the complete seven-volume Clifton Chronicles set.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Clifton Chronicles reading order? The seven novels in order: Only Time Will Tell (2011), The Sins of the Father (2012), Best Kept Secret (2013), Be Careful What You Wish For (2014), Mightier Than the Sword (2015), Cometh the Hour (2016), This Was a Man (2016). Each ends on a cliffhanger except the final volume.
Is the series autobiographical? Partly. Like Harry Clifton, Archer grew up in modest circumstances, was uncertain about his father’s identity, and rose to prominence through ambition and talent. But the saga is primarily fiction spanning 1920–1992.