UK author, disgraced ex-MP Jeffrey Archer dead at 86

Archer more over 300 million copies worldwide and was known for pacy thrillers ‌like his 1976 debut Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less and 1979’s Kane & Abel. His final novel, Adam and Eve, is due to be published on Tuesday.

Kate Elton, HarperCollins’ UK CEO and Archer’s editor, said in a statement on Monday: “We’re all devastated to have lost a writer who has brought joy to generations of readers — and a true friend.”

Archer was also ‌a prominent Conservative politician, ‌who briefly served ⁠as a lawmaker before becoming a senior party official under then-prime minister Margaret ​Thatcher in the mid-1980s.

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.

“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 five-and-a-half years on the New York Times bestseller lists.

Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, who spent the evening with Archer on Sunday to celebrate his new novel, said the author had been in his “most wonderful, ebullient form”.

Posting on X, Brandreth said: “Just yesterday I did a show with Jeffrey Archer to celebrate his new novel – he said it was to be his last.

“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 and had recently appeared on radio shows ​to promote the book.

HarperCollins said ⁠he had died suddenly and peacefully, “between writing sessions”.

He and his wife Dame Mary Archer celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in 2026.

They had two sons and five grandchildren.

with PA