Bestselling author Jeffrey Archer dies aged 86

Bestselling British novelist and former politician Jeffrey Archer, who was jailed for lying in a high-profile libel case, has died aged 86, his publisher HarperCollins said on Monday.

Archer sold more than 300 million books worldwide and was known for pacy thrillers such as his 1976 debut Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less and 1979's Kane & Abel, Reuters reports.

His final novel, Adam and Eve, is due to be published on Tuesday. HarperCollins said he died suddenly and peacefully at home between writing sessions.

Kate Elton, HarperCollins' UK chief executive and Archer's editor, said the publisher was devastated to have lost a writer who had brought joy to generations of readers, and a true friend.

Archer was also a prominent Conservative politician. He briefly served as an MP before becoming a senior party official under Margaret Thatcher in the mid-1980s. He sat in the House of Lords as a non-affiliated peer from his release from prison until he retired in 2024.

His public downfall was as well known as his books. In 1987, Archer sued the Daily Star for reporting that he had paid a woman for sex, and won a then-record £500,000 ($660,450) in damages.

The case returned to the public eye when he was selected as the Conservative candidate for London's first elected mayor in 1999. A former friend accused him of lying, and Archer was charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice, convicted and sentenced to four years in prison. He served two years, during which he wrote A Prison Diary.

The libel trial became notorious for the judge's summing-up of the evidence given by Archer's wife, Mary. Mr Justice Caulfield told the jury to remember her in the witness box and asked whether she had elegance, fragrance and radiance, before asking whether Archer needed cold, unloving sex in a seedy hotel.

His reputation as one of the most colourful figures in British public life did his literary career no harm. HarperCollins said his books were sold in 119 countries and spent a total of five and a half years on the New York Times bestseller lists. He was due to speak about his final novel at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Saturday and had recently appeared on radio shows to promote it.

Archer, who regularly drew criticism from other writers for supposedly writing dumbed-down page-turners, had a spat with South African Nobel Prize-winning author Nadine Gordimer at one stage.

Openly dismissive of the literary acclaim she received, he said that although she was an outstanding writer, she sold far fewer books than he did. He also claimed that Gordimer and fellow Nobel laureate Patrick White “knew nothing about story”.

Additional source: Euronews