Prisoner of Birth moves along at a fast clip. Danny Cartwright is a Cockney working class lad who mixes with some upper class thugs during his engagement celebration.

Prisoner of Birth moves along at a fast clip. Danny Cartwright is a Cockney working class lad who mixes with some upper class thugs during his engagement celebration.

The aristocrats frame him for the murder of his best friend who would also have been his brother-in-law.

In prison, Cartwright makes friends with two former soldiers. They teach him how to carry off a bit of posh and brush up on his meagre education.

He is an excellent mimic and quickly picks up all he needs to know. Cartwright breaks out of prison to exact revenge on his enemies, using sophisticated weapons because truth and justice elude him.

Legal problems are glossed over as he, his lawyers and loyal girlfriend try to prove his innocence.

There are many coincidences and obvious contrivances to get the story to move along.

Archer is a consummate storyteller. He has not lost his touch after a spell in prison. He uses the experience to tell this absorbing tale of murder, revenge and retribution.