Only Time Will Tell

Only Time Will Tell is a novel by the English writer Jeffrey Archer, published in 2011 and the first of the seven books in the Clifton Chronicles.

The book begins in 1920 with Harry Clifton's account of being told that his father was killed in the war, and follows him through a childhood in Bristol where the docks are the only future he can see. Harry can sing, which is not a skill the docks have any use for, and three people notice it: the choir mistress Miss Monday, his elementary school teacher Mr Holcombe, and Old Jack Tar, a veteran of the Boer War who keeps to himself. Their help opens a way out of the life that was expected of him, and a question about his parentage opens something else. The novel covers the years from 1919 to 1940, ending as the second war begins.

Archer's chronicle follows the same family across seven books, and this first volume was published as part of a worldwide tour that began in India.