Questions About As the Crow Flies

by Jeffrey Archer (Goodreads Author)

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Answered Questions (1)

Percy comments that the king (george V?) has a great-great-great-great grandfather who was nearly murdered by Percy's ancestor, who was then exiled. Becky later laughs as she works out who the ancestor must have been. I thus assume the ancestor was reasonably famous. It doesn't work out, because George V's grandfather would have been Prince Albert, whose ancestry is non-famous in the UK. But who was it meant to be?

Sara The book lists the graduation ceremony where this exchange happened as occurring sometime between 1918-1921, which was during the reign of George V, b…moreThe book lists the graduation ceremony where this exchange happened as occurring sometime between 1918-1921, which was during the reign of George V, but Percy refers to the king as "Bertie" which was a nickname for King George VI. Assuming that Archer played a little more looslely with the timeline than the nickname, it would make sense that the king's great-great-great-great-grandfather was George II. Following that logic, I think it's a safe bet that Percy's ancestor was Bonnie Prince Charlie, especially considering his Scottish roots.

I've been mulling over this question for years, since the first time I read this book. At one point in the early 2000's I actually emailed the question to the email address listed on Jeffrey Archer's web page. An assistant replied to me with words to the effect of "I have no idea, and I'm not going to ask my boss (who is a very busy internationally best-selling author) to identify a seriously minor character in a book he wrote years ago". I don't fault him/her for that!(less)

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