Author, disgraced ex-MP Jeffrey Archer dies
With what he said was his final novel due for publication later this month, former UK MP Lord Jeffrey Archer has died at 86.
Former British MP and best-selling author Jeffrey Archer has died, just days ahead of the publication of what he said would be his final book.
His books sold more over 300 million copies worldwide, with the biggest hits coming in pacy thrillers such as his 1976 debut Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less and 1979’s Kane & Abel.
Archer, who was 86, was due to publish his final novel, Adam and Eve, next Tuesday.
“We’re all devastated to have lost a writer who has brought joy to generations of readers — and a true friend,” HarperCollins’ UK CEO Kate Elton, who wasArcher’s editor, said on Monday (British time).
Archer was also a prominent Conservative politician, with a brief term as an MP before becoming a senior party official under then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the mid-1980s.
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But he was as well-known for his very public downfall.
In 1987, Archer sued the Daily Star tabloid for saying he had paid a woman for sex, winning a then-record £500,000 ($A948,000) in damages. The case returned to the public eye when he was selected as the Conservative candidate to become London’s first elected mayor in 1999.
A former friend accused him of lying and Archer was eventually charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice, convicted and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. He served two years, during which time he wrote A Prison Diary.
The trial of Archer’s libel case, which was heard in front of a jury, became notorious for the judge’s summing up of evidence given by Archer’s wife Mary.
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“Remember Mary Archer in the witness box,” the judge, Bernard Caulfield, told the jury.
“Your vision of her will probably never disappear. Has she elegance? Has she fragrance? Would she have, without the strain of this trial, radiance?”
And, of Archer, he added: “Is he in need of cold, unloving, rubber-insulated sex in a seedy hotel?”
Archer’s reputation as one of the most colourful figures in British public life did no harm to his literary career. His books were sold in 119 countries, HarperCollins said. He spent a total of 5½ years on The New York Times bestseller lists.
Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, who was with Archer on Sunday to celebrate his new novel, said the author had been in his “most wonderful, ebullient form”.
“Just yesterday I did a show with Jeffrey Archer to celebrate his new novel – he said it was to be his last,” Brandreth wrote on X.
“He was in the most wonderful, ebullient form and had such a great reception from a packed house.
“He was funny, engaging and self-deprecating – a great storyteller to the last.”
Archer was due to speak about his final novel this weekend at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. He had also recently appeared on radio shows to promote the book.
HarperCollins said he had died suddenly and peacefully, “between writing sessions”.
He and Dame Mary Archer celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in 2026. They had two sons and five grandchildren.
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