In a statement, HarperCollins’ UK CEO and Archer’s editor Kate Elton said: “We’re all devastated to have lost a writer who has brought joy to generations of readers — and a true friend.”
Best-selling British novelist and former Tory politician Jeffrey Archer has died at the age of 86, his publisher HarperCollins said on Monday.
Archer, whose international literary career spanned decades with over 300 million books sold across 119 countries, was celebrated for fast-paced thrillers like his 1976 debut Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less and the 1979 hit Kane & Abel. His final book, Adam and Eve, is scheduled for release on Tuesday, reported news agency Reuters. His publisher HarperCollins stated that the author passed away suddenly and peacefully between writing sessions. He had been actively promoting the project on recent radio broadcasts and was set to present at the Cheltenham Literature Festival this coming weekend.
“We’re all devastated to have lost a writer who has brought joy to generations of readers – and a true friend,” stated Kate Elton, UK CEO of HarperCollins and Archer’s longtime editor.
His political career and scandal
Born in north London on April 15, 1940, Archer soon moved to Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, according to the BBC.
In 1969, Archer was elected MP for the Lincolnshire constituency of Louth. After serving as a lawmaker for five years, he went on to become Conservative Party deputy chairman under then-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher in the mid-1980s, the BBC reported.
However, his career was equally defined by a dramatic public scandal. In 1987, Archer won a record £500,000 ($660,450) in libel damages after suing the Daily Star over allegations involving a sex worker. The matter resurfaced in 1999 while he was running as the Conservative nominee for London Mayor. Following allegations from a former associate that he had fabricated evidence, Archer was convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice, drawing a four-year sentence. He ultimately served two years, an experience that inspired his book A Prison Diary.
The original libel trial achieved notoriety due to remarks made by Mr. Justice Bernard Caulfield while addressing the jury regarding Archer’s wife, Mary.
“Remember Mary Archer in the witness box,” Caulfield instructed 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?”
Directing his comments to the author himself, the judge remarked: “Is he in need of cold, unloving, rubber-insulated sex in a seedy hotel?”
He returned to the House of Lords after being released in 2003 and served until he retired in 2024.
(With inputs from Reuters.)
