…Bestselling author dies ‘peacefully’ at home between writing sessions
Jeffrey Archer, the bestselling novelist and former Conservative MP, has died aged 86. Lord Archer died “suddenly and peacefully” at home on Monday between writing sessions, his publisher HarperCollins said.
The author, who sold more than 300 million books worldwide, had been signing books and meeting fans until the day before his death, when he appeared at a sold-out event at the Leicester Square Theatre in London with broadcaster Gyles Brandreth.
His final novel, Adam and Eve, which he said would be his last after five decades of storytelling, is being published globally on Tuesday. He had been due to discuss the book at the Cheltenham Literature Festival this weekend.
Lord Archer remains the only author to have been No 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller lists for fiction, short stories and non-fiction. He spent a combined five and a half years on the bestseller list and his books were sold in 119 countries.
His 1979 novel Kane and Abel, one of the most popular books in the world, sold an estimated 34 million copies.
From Parliament to publishing legend
Born in London on April 15, 1940, Archer entered Parliament in 1969 aged 29 after winning the Louth by-election in Lincolnshire, making him one of the youngest MPs at the time. He served until 1974, when heavy debts after a fraudulent investment scheme forced him to stand down.
His first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1976), was written to clear those debts.
Margaret Thatcher appointed him deputy chairman of the Conservative Party in September 1985. He resigned a year later after a newspaper alleged he had paid money to sex worker Monica Coghlan. He sued the Daily Star, which claimed he had slept with Coghlan, and was awarded £500,000 in libel damages in 1987 — then a record.
He was made a life peer in 1992 as Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare and was selected as the Conservative candidate for the first London mayoral election in 1999.
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The libel case returned to haunt him when a former friend accused him of lying during the trial. After an investigation, Archer was convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice and jailed for four years in 2001. He served two years, during which he wrote A Prison Diary. In the early 1990s he had also led fundraising campaigns for Kurdish refugees after the Gulf War.
Tributes
HarperCollins UK chief executive and Archer’s editor, Kate Elton, said: “It has been one of the great privileges of my publishing life to have been Jeffrey Archer’s editor. He was the master storyteller and an editor’s dream — phenomenally hard-working, utterly committed to completing draft after draft to get every word as perfect as possible, and a true champion of the ‘team’ nature of great publishing.
“We’re all devastated to have lost a writer who has brought joy to generations of readers — and a true friend.”
The author is survived by his wife of 60 years, Dame Mary Archer DBE. The couple celebrated their diamond anniversary this year at The Old Vicarage in Grantchester. They had two sons, William and James, three grandsons and two granddaughters, and divided their time between homes in London and Mallorca.
His family has asked for privacy but would like to “share how much he was loved and how proud they are of him,” the publisher said.
