Bestselling author Jeffrey Archer reveals prostate cancer, in detail

Jeffrey Archer turned his attention from writing bestselling books on Sunday to tell the story of being diagnosed with prostate cancer, and the operation that followed -- in great detail.

“After I had stripped down to my pants and donned a hospital gown, I was taken to the operating theatre, where Mr Shah introduced me to his team of six, which included a robot from California called Da Vinci,” he wrote in the Mail on Sunday.

“Mr Shah next showed me the six places on my stomach where he would make small incisions to allow Da Vinci’s little fingers to enter my abdomen and remove my prostate. He would be operating the robot, he explained,” Archer continued. “I did ask, because I’m human, how many times he’d done this before. More than 500 was his reply, which seemed satisfactory.”

In the U.S., Archer is best known as an author: His books perennially hit bestseller lists, including his latest, “Be Careful What You Wish For,” out earlier this year, and its predecessor, “Best Kept Secret.”

But in England, Archer is known for many things, including having been a member of Parliament, deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, at the center of a perjury scandal regarding involvement with prostitutes -- for which he went to jail -- and, nevertheless, being made a life peer in the House of Lords.

In other words, while it might be hard for the author to come up with something shocking, his description of being swaddled in an adult diaper -- called a “nappy” in England, of course -- was a little unexpected.

Archer waited until the process was over to reveal his diagnosis. He now is cancer free.