Jeffrey Archer: Best-selling author and former politician dies aged 86

Archer was born in north London on 15 April 1940 but would quickly move to Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, where his family bought a house from John Cleese’s mother.

He was made a life peer in 1992 but his political career was paused in 2001 when he was jailed for four years for perjury and perverting the course of justice.

He was found to have lied in libel action he had brought against The Star newspaper, in which he was awarded £500,000 in damages.

He was released in 2003 and returned to the House of Lords until he retired in 2024.

His last book, Adam and Eve, is set to be released this week, HarperCollins added, describing him as a “master storyteller” whose readers “meant everything to him”.

Last week, Archer returned to his former school to promote his last book.

“It’s wonderful to come back. What I got a real thrill about when I was walking towards the library is seeing the young boys and girls and thinking, ‘that’s the next generation’,” Archer said at Wellington School.

Archer was due to attend the Cheltenham Festival on Saturday to discuss final novel.

He and his wife Mary had celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this year, HarperCollins said.

The pair have two sons and five grandchildren.

Paying tribute to the bestselling author, Kate Elton, HarperCollins UK CEO and Jeffrey’s editor, 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.”

Former Conservative chancellor and current Reform UK MP for Stratford-on-Avon Nadhim Zahawi paid tribute to the bestselling author on X, describing him as a “dear friend and extraordinary human being”.

He wrote: “His gift for storytelling was matched by his wit, warmth and boundless energy. Life was never dull in Jeffrey’s company.”