Only Time Will Tell

Only Time Will Tell is the first book in an ambitious new series from the globally famous author of Kane and Abel and A Prisoner of Birth. The novel follows the narrative of one family across generations and continents, from tragedy to victory.

"I was told that my father was killed in the war," is how Harry Clifton's epic life story begins in 1920. Harry, a dock worker in Bristol, was raised by his uncle, who hopes to see him in the shipyard after he graduates from high school. Harry never met his father. His life will never be the same again, however, as an unexpected gift earns him a scholarship at an elite boys' school.

Harry eventually finds out how his father really passed away as an adult, but the terrible reality just makes him wonder: Was he indeed his father? Is he the firstborn son of a West Country aristocrat whose family runs a shipping company, or is he the son of Arthur Clifton, a stevedore who worked his whole life on the docks?

With a cast of colorful characters, this first book in Archer's ambitious series The Clifton Chronicles takes us from the devastation of World War I to the start of World War II, when Harry has to choose between joining the navy and fighting alongside Hitler's Germany or accepting a position at Oxford. Only Time Will Tell takes readers on a journey through to future volumes that will vividly depict a century of recent history and unveil a family story that neither the reader nor Harry Clifton himself could have imagined, from the docks of working-class England to the busy streets of 1940s New York City.