ARCHER'S MANY COMEBACKS : DISGRACED MP TURNS BAD TIMES INTO BEST SELLERS.

Byline: Elizabeth M. Cosin Daily News Staff Writer

Life has humbled Jeffrey Archer. It has helped him soar, watched as he crashed, and bore witness to his financial and professional resurrection.

Now as he sits back atop the heap, a ``Lord'' before his name, a nice pile of cash in his bank account, a pretty decent art collection on his walls, the ear of the British prime minister, and yet another best-selling novel on his bookshelf, Archer looks down with humility and modesty.

Yet, it is his writing that has special significance to Archer above even his other lofty and not so lofty accomplishments - and he has done much in his 56 years. Disgraced and forced to resign twice from national political posts, Archer has made a storied comeback, politically and financially. It is success he owes in no small way to the minor fortune he has made penning those lengthy, reader-friendly tomes about the very halls of power and affluence where he once and now walks.

Archer's latest descent into popular fiction, ``The Fourth Estate'' (549 pages, HarperCollins; $26), is already well on its way up the best-seller list. It has even caused his lordship to coin an addition to the king's English. The word is ``novelography.'' It's kind of on the pulp side of the true-crime novel, like a G-rated version of ``In Cold Blood.''

The book itself loosely parallels the lives of media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell, their rise to power, their financial crises and, finally, their very different outcomes. It is a detailed story that includes some juicy gossip and some remarkable stories, the kind that would be hard to believe if they weren't, as Archer insists, mostly true.

``I don't think you could make up those things,'' said Archer, in Los Angeles recently as part of his stateside tour for the new book.

``About 70 percent is true,'' he added. ``These men lived extraordinary lives, and I thought it was an interesting story to tell. After all, I'm not a writer, I'm a storyteller.''

It is a modest statement by a man wearing a Savile Row suit, cuff-linked shirt and, on this day, a tie with a U.S. presidential motif. (``They will love it back home,'' he said. ``But don't tell my wife I bought more ties.'')

Though the youngest in his class when elected to the House of Commons in 1969 and now a valued member of Prime Minister John Major's inner circle, Archer is not much given to bravado these days.

It is an attitude born of a roller-coaster life that has brought him legendary status among Britain's public figures.

``That's what I do,'' he said with some degree of self-mocking. ``I resign, fight and then I return.''

His first disaster came five years into his life as a public servant when in 1974 the young MP was forced to resign in disgrace when an investment scheme went sour, leaving him penniless and dishonored.

He turned to writing as a kind of catharsis for his misery and wrote a book about a guy who loses everything (art imitating life), which aided his first comeback (life imitating art), an appointment as deputy chairman of Britain's Conservative Party.

But he was forced to quit, disgraced again, this time by his reported involvement with a prostitute (life lives up to art's prophecy). But Archer pressed onward, sued the tabloid that claimed he had had sex with said prostitute and won (a whopping $800,000), restoring his tarnished dignity.

Along the way, he stumbled into the sideline as best-selling, hugely successful author, and when he helped Major get re-elected some years back, he got placed on the PM's honors list. In 1995, the queen made him a life peer, an honor that carries with it the title of lord, thank you.

It has been success that has most touched Archer, though it is the failures that seemed to have had the most impact. Although his colleagues in Parliament might argue differently, Archer wears a modest, almost thankful demeanor these days, the mask of a man who has seen enough of the rough side of life not to want anything more to do with it.

He loves American movies, going to museums and his wife, a university professor and researcher, to whom he has remained married throughout his many crises.

But he spends most of his time in the political arena and still very much appreciates the give and take of that most public of of battlefields. His time away from the chambers of government is mostly relegated to research and writing, a task he still finds unbearably difficult.

But it is a necessary sacrifice to the muse that has been very, very good to him. And so he presses on.

``I suppose on some levels I am amazed that people are reading (the books),'' he said. ``I didn't think really that you could actually make a good living writing books; that is not why I started. But obviously, people like them.''

And how. His books typically reach six figures in copies sold, and he gets a tad more than that to write them (he claims his last deal with HarperCollins was three books, $33 million). Which means he can easily afford his place in the country, a penthouse overlooking the Thames, his fondness for owning Impressionist paintings and last-minute getaways on, say, the Concord.

It's enough to make a guy feel, well, lucky.

``I consider myself very fortunate,'' Archer said. ``I know what it's like not to have anything. Not a penny. But now, if I want to get on the Concord and fly somewhere, I am comfortable enough to do that. It's a nice feeling to have, and I enjoy it.''

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Photo: After weathering disgrace more than once during hisgovernment career in Great Britain, Jeffrey Archer now makes millions as an author.