Jeffrey Archer, the bestselling novelist and former Conservative MP, died peacefully at home aged 86, his publisher HarperCollins said, “between writing sessions.” Archer served as a Conservative MP from 1969 after winning a Louth by-election, later became the party’s deputy chair and was made a life peer in 1992. His political ambitions collapsed after an Old Bailey jury found he had lied in a 1987 libel action against the Star; he was convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice and sentenced to four years in prison, serving part of that sentence and being released early in 2003. As an author Archer sold about 300 million books worldwide, spent 14 years on the Sunday Times bestseller lists, and wrote Kane and Abel, which has sold more than 30 million copies. His first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, was published in 1976 after bankruptcy ended his parliamentary career and launched his long writing career. Archer died one day before the scheduled publication of his final novel, Adam and Eve, and had appeared at a sold-out book event with broadcaster Gyles Brandreth at the Leicester Square Theatre the day before his death.
