Around 30,000 people in the UK were infected with hepatitis C and/or HIV after receiving contaminated blood or blood products, including 380 children. At least 3,000 died after contracting HIV or hepatitis C and the rest were left severely ill.
Lord Archer has accrued a circle of acquaintances who, though they may gush as they bid him goodbye, only say what they really think in their diaries, which they publish a few years later.