So where do you go after selling 125m books and spending time in jail for perjury and perverting the course of justice? It was obvious to Lord Archer. He wrote the fifth gospel and then got the Vatican to unveil it to the world.You have to hand it to him. He aims high. And sometimes - like yesterday - he hits the bull's eye.
Sitting elbow to elbow with the Rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute at a press conference in Rome, the irrepressible Lord Archer patted the slim brown tome he was presenting.
Overlooking for a moment other blockbuster authors such as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, he said: "This is a gospel - and I think we're the first people to do that."
The "we" is explained in the frontispiece of his latest book, The Gospel according to Judas, which says it was written "with the assistance of Professor Francis J Moloney", an Australian and one of the world's leading Biblical scholars.
What the professor called "the fertile imagination of Jeffrey Archer" and his own renowned scholarship have yielded a volume that has already won readers in high places. And maybe very high places.
He would not actually vouchsafe that Pope Benedict had read it.
But, with the man from the publishers looking on, beaming ear to ear, the professor said he was an old friend of the pontiff and had "a suspicion that he may have read it, because I am aware that he has an interest in this whole enigma of Judas". Not exactly a papal blessing for the book cover. Not yet, anyway.
Enigma
Prof Moloney had earlier recalled that Pope Benedict had referred to Judas in an address last year. "I thought, 'Someone has given him our book'," he added.
This appeared to leave only two real questions: one being whether God would now be endorsing Lord Archer's latest work; the other, how on earth someone released from prison just four years ago managed to talk some of the world's most respected religious figures into collaborating with him (Archbishop Desmond Tutu, by the way, did the audio version).
"I know, I know," said Prof Moloney cheerfully as he waited for the press conference. "My colleagues said, 'What are you thinking of? The guy's a villain'."
Just about the only reference to Lord Archer's controversial past seemed to have been linked to the professor's choice of restaurant for their first meeting in Rome. Its name translates as The Two Thieves.
The professor was drawn into the project by no less a figure than Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, his former teacher and Benedict's only serious rival for the papacy.
The cardinal, in turn, had been contacted by Father Michael Seed, a British Franciscan who is an old friend of Lord Archer.
All of which goes to prove the value of networking, even in the Roman Catholic church.
Prof Moloney's collaboration was the key to securing help from the Pontifical Biblical Institute.
Looking uncomfortable, the rector, Father Stephen Pisano, stressed his presentation of the book did not mean "the institute, the Vatican or the Pope endorses this book".
But there were hints that others may have seen in Lord Archer's talent for writing bestsellers a way to offset the influence of two works that have deeply irked the leaders of Roman Catholicism.
Prof Moloney said one reason for his cooperation was because scholarly works like his own "had made little impact on the increasing scepticism surrounding the Christian Church (and increasingly, within the Christian Church), while deeply flawed and uninformed works like Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion have become bestsellers".
The Gospel according to Judas, which comes in a mock-leather cover with purple flyleaves, was meant to look and read like a gospel, said Lord Archer.
It recounts the traditional story of Jesus's life, but seen from the standpoint of the apostle who betrayed him and with some novel twists that Prof Moloney said were all possible, though not necessarily probable.
Judas was not paid 30 pieces of silver. He did not intend Jesus to be captured. He did not hang himself or die in a ghastly accident, but survived into old age to die, as did Jesus, crucified by the Romans.
Such a comprehensive rehabilitation is bound to raise questions about the Catholic church's view of what Lord Archer called "the most vilified sinner in history".
Prof Moloney said another reason for taking part was to "tell a story of Judas in which every single one of us can find themselves.
Failure lies at the core of human experience and both human and Christian maturity emerge from an ability to handle failure."
And he didn't even look at Lord Archer as he was saying it.
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