London: Jeffrey Archer, the bestselling British author and former politician whose career was marked by a high-profile libel case and subsequent imprisonment for perjury, has died at the age of 86, his publisher HarperCollins said on Monday.
Archer sold more than 300 million books worldwide and became known for fast-paced thrillers, including his 1976 debut novel Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less and the 1979 bestseller Kane & Abel. His final novel, Adam and Eve, is scheduled for publication on Tuesday, Reuters said.
Kate Elton, UK CEO of HarperCollins and Archer’s editor, said the publishing house was “devastated” by the loss of a writer who had entertained generations of readers and had also been a close friend.
Alongside his literary career, Archer was a prominent figure in the Conservative Party. He briefly served as a lawmaker before becoming a senior party official during Margaret Thatcher’s tenure as prime minister in the 1980s.
However, Archer’s public life was also overshadowed by a dramatic legal and political downfall.
In 1987, Archer sued the Daily Star after the tabloid alleged that he had paid a woman for sex. He won the case and was awarded £500,000 in damages, then a record amount. The controversy resurfaced years later when Archer was chosen as the Conservative candidate for London’s first elected mayoral election in 1999.
A former friend subsequently accused him of lying about the events surrounding the case. Archer was later prosecuted for perjury and perverting the course of justice, convicted and sentenced to four years in prison. He served two years behind bars, during which he wrote A Prison Diary.
The libel trial became particularly notorious because of comments made by the judge, Bernard Caulfield, while summing up evidence presented by Archer’s wife, Mary.
Despite the scandal and imprisonment, Archer’s reputation as one of Britain’s most colourful public figures did not prevent his books from achieving international success. HarperCollins said his works were published in 119 countries, while he spent a combined five-and-a-half years on the New York Times bestseller lists.
Archer had been scheduled to discuss Adam and Eve at the Cheltenham Literature Festival this weekend and had recently appeared on radio programmes to promote the book.
