I thoroughly enjoyed this book for several reasons. First, Archer really connects his characters. Second, he fleshes out the aforementioned characters. Third, he tells a gripping tale that has twists and turns that I certainly did not see coming. Last, he leaves you wanting more.

In fact I must have seen him at least a dozen times during the next three years, but he was never able to recall any of those occasions, until we met up in Rome. Why might Archer have used different voices to tell his story? What advantages does it offer a writer? Do you find the shifting perspectives illuminating...or distracting? Do you prefer some voices over others? Roger Allam, perhaps, or Emelia Fox? The author goes to great lengths to convince us that yes, the Main Character is indeed a brilliant child/man with unseen depths and superb intellect. We must believe this because of the great lengths other characters go to ensure that the Main Character has the means to build on his future, and the same supporting characters are always engaged in conversation talking about how brilliant Main Character is and conspiring to make sure a tiny kid does not know that everyone is working in collusion to get him to accept opportunities unavailable to other, lesser children of his socioeconomic class. Since Main Character is brilliant, but would refuse the help of those who love him. On Sundays I was transported into another world, but I feared this state of delirium could not last forever. From the internationally bestselling author of Kane and Abel and A Prisoner of Birth comes Only Time Will Tell, the first in an ambitious new series that tells the story of one family across generations, across oceans, from heartbreak to triumph.The narration of the audiobook was absolutely superb. The primary narrator is Roger Allam, with shorter sections by Emilia Fox. She reads the female first person narratives. Allam does American and English dialects wonderfully. He does the upper class and the lower class characters so you hear each one’s social class in how they speak. He speaks very clearly and with strength so you miss nothing. When he impersonates Churchill, I couldn't help but smile. The narration could not have been better. It spans twenty years,from World War I to the start of World War II. War is a familiar theme in Archer's work,as he himself was a child of World War II.

When Giles was driven to the grammar school on his first day, I begged my mother to let me go along, but only because I wanted to meet Harry. But my father wouldn’t hear of it, and despite my bursting into controlled tears, they still left me standing on the top step with my younger sister Grace. I knew Papa was cross about Giles not being offered a place at Eton, something I still don’t understand, because a lot of boys more stupid than my brother passed the exam. Mama didn’t seem to mind which school Giles went to, whereas I was delighted he was going to Bristol Grammar, because it meant I’d have a better chance of seeing Harry again. And then Harry spoke, a soft, gentle voice that made you want to listen. The birthday party had apparently been going swimmingly until my father burst into the room, and then he hardly spoke again. I’d never known my father to be so off-hand with anyone, and I couldn’t understand why he should behave in that way towards a complete stranger. But even more inexplicable was Papa’s reaction when he asked Harry when his birthday was. How could such an innocuous question bring on such an extreme reaction? A moment later my father got up and left the room, without even saying goodbye to Giles and his guests. I could see that Mama was embarrassed by his behaviour, although she poured another cup of tea and pretended not to notice. Most students could not understand how he was able to have houses and cars to his name yet he only worked part-time jobs as a fundraiser for the charity organization, Oxfam. This season saw him meet his future wife, Mary Weeden, who happened to be a chemistry student in the Oxford college of St Anne’s. They later on had two sons both of whom became politicians. After graduating from College, he continued his fundraising work this time for a medical charity known as The National Birthday Trust.When challenged by his housemaster, Harry replies that "sometimes it's an advantage to be disadvantaged." I’m a big fan of sweeping, multi-generational, decade-spanning novels. I love learning about the life and loves of a particular character and those people that mean the most to him. Jeffery Archer is one of the authors that made me love this genre. And he has certainly done it again with Only Time Will Tell. If Miss Austen had been able to go to university, she might never have written a novel, and even if she had, her work probably wouldn’t have been so insightful. An exercise in wish fulfillment. The good may suffer, but the bad will get theirs in the end. The fun is watching it unfold.” — St. Petersburg Times (Florida) on A PRISONER OF BIRTH

He came to tea at the Manor House to celebrate my brother’s twelfth birthday. He was so quiet and reserved that I wondered how he could possibly be Giles’s best friend. The other one, Deakins, was really strange. He never stopped eating and hardly said a word all afternoon. I didn’t realize Mum had other plans for my future, which didn’t include joining Uncle Stan in the shipyard. I was also at St Mary Redcliffe the evening his voice broke, but at the time I didn’t understand why so many heads were turning and some members of the congregation began to whisper among themselves. All I know is that I never heard him sing again. Currently (2016-10-15) this is free at both audible.co.uk and audible.com . The author has added another to the series, and thus this, the first book in the series, is free. I am unsure how long it will be free or if this is only available to those with a subscription. I have no idea if it is good, but I figured why not try it!The biggest reason I enjoyed this book is all of the family secrets. Oh, there are some doozies in here. I don't want to give anything away but there are a lot of secret connections between Harry and some of the other characters in the book and I loved seeing them unraveled throughout the book. The first in the series, Only Time Will Tell takes a cast of memorable characters from the ravages of the Great War to the outbreak of the Second World War, when Harry must decide whether to take his place at Oxford, or join the fight against Hitler’s Germany. I have to admit that I was not looking for a long series of books about these characters and presumably their descendents. I would have preferred to simply have the questions posed throughout the book answered and be on my way to another book. In fact, I would sort of like it if someone just answered my questions so I wouldn’t have to read the next book(s). The direction the story took right at the end was not as intriguing to me as everything that came before and I can’t say that I’m all that interested in plowing through the trials and tribulations introduced in the last 25 to get the answers to the questions posed in the first 25. Only Time Will Tell was a relatively fast read and I did like quite a few of the characters very much, but not quite enough for another (or 4 more) books about them. The family were all staying at our villa in Tuscany that summer when Giles took me to one side and said he needed to ask my advice. He only ever did that when he wanted something. But this time it turned out to be something I wanted just as much as he did. First of all, let me state clearly that two stars means I think this book is OK! Whether you should read it or not ought to depend upon your mood and what you are looking for. It is not poorly written and will satisfy those readers who love series, love adventure stories, love plot-oriented books and love solving a puzzle. What kind of a puzzle? You know in fact very early on who the central character's father is, but what keeps you reading is to discover how the author is going to weave together all the details to make an entertaining story that makes sense. Each of the central characters tells you what they know and what has happened to them personally. With each retelling of the story you get a few more details, but there is a lot of repetition. In this respect it works very well as an audiobook because the repetition means you are not going to miss important details.