Jeffrey Archer, the bestselling novelist whose political career ended in a prison sentence, has died at the age of 86. His publisher HarperCollins said he died suddenly and peacefully at home on Monday, between writing sessions, in the same week his final book, Adam and Eve, is due to be published.
Archer sold more than 300 million books over five decades, among them Kane and Abel and the Clifton Chronicles series, and often set his stories in his home town of Wellington in Somerset. He was born in north London on 15 April 1940, but the family soon moved to Weston-super-Mare, where they bought a house from John Cleese’s mother. He was still promoting the new novel in his final days. On Sunday he signed books for fans at the Leicester Square Theatre in London alongside broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, last week he returned to Wellington School, and he had been due at the Cheltenham Festival on Saturday.
His time in politics was more turbulent. Archer was elected MP for Louth in Lincolnshire in 1969, served for five years and later became deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. In 2001 he was jailed for four years for perjury and perverting the course of justice, after being found to have lied in the 1987 libel case he brought against the Daily Star, in which he had been awarded £500,000 in damages. He was released in 2003 and returned to the House of Lords, where he sat until retiring in 2024.
Brandreth wrote on X that Archer had told the audience on Sunday that the new book would be his last, and that he had been in excellent form in front of a full house. He later told the BBC that Archer “became a gentler person after prison”. Kate Elton, chief executive of HarperCollins UK and Archer’s editor, said working with him had been one of the great privileges of her career, describing him as phenomenally hard-working and committed to redrafting until every word was right.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called the news a “huge shock” and said Archer had sent her a message that same morning. Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi described him on X as a dear friend. Archer and his wife Mary marked their 60th wedding anniversary this year. They have two sons and five grandchildren.
