Jeffrey Archer dies at 86, eve of final novel Adam and Eve release

Jeffrey Archer has died at 86, a day before the global release of his final novel, Adam and Eve. His death closes a career marked by blockbuster fiction, political scandal and an unlikely public comeback.Image used for representational purposes onlyLondon,Oct 6, 2026 07:44 ISTBestselling British author and former politician Jeffrey Archer has died at the age of 86, his publisher HarperCollins said. He died "suddenly and peacefully" at his home on Monday, a day before the global release of his final novel, Adam and Eve.Archer built a writing career that ran for five decades and sold 300 million books worldwide, according to HarperCollins. He was also a senior figure in Britain’s Conservative Party before his political career was hit by a perjury conviction that led to a prison sentence in 2001.Like his bestseller Kane and Abel, Archer’s final novel follows two biblically named characters born on the same day into different social classes. HarperCollins said Archer spent 14 years and five months on Britain’s Sunday Times bestseller lists and more than five years on The New York Times bestseller lists.His writing career began after financial losses from bad investments. His debut novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, was published in 1976 and was said to have been inspired by his own experience of nearly going bankrupt. In politics, Archer rose through the Conservative Party under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and was appointed to the House of Lords in 1992 by her successor, Prime Minister John Major. He was cast out of the party shortly before being jailed on perjury charges in 2001.The case stemmed from his 1999 campaign for mayor of London, when allegations emerged that he had lied in court during a libel case more than a decade earlier. Archer had sued a newspaper that accused him of paying a sex worker and had won GBP 500,000 in damages. A jury later found that he had fabricated an alibi during the 1987 case against the Daily Star, and he was sentenced to four years in prison. He was released early in 2003 after serving just over two years. His conviction did not take away his seat in the House of Lords because there was no legal route to remove him at the time. He later returned to the upper house as a politically non-affiliated member and remained there until his retirement in 2024.Archer wrote about his time in prison in the three-volume series A Prison Diary. The memoirs — Hell, Purgatory and Heaven — described the lives of inmates in British prisons, from the high-security HMP Belmarsh to the North Sea Camp open prison.Before he was jailed, Archer had also tried to change succession laws to give equal rights to daughters of royals. Years later, his efforts were cited as an inspiration for the Succession to the Crown Act of 2013, which ended the practice of younger sons moving ahead of older daughters in the line of succession.Some of those themes also appeared in his final book. Adam and Eve follows the daughter of an earl who wanted a son so he could pass down his estate, and the son of a shepherd who wanted a daughter because he knew a son would be sent off to war. Archer had said the novel, set against war and centred on love and class, “Adam and Eve has proved the most satisfying thing I have ever written.”HarperCollins said Archer is survived by his wife of 60 years, Dame Mary Archer, their two sons, two granddaughters and three grandsons. His death closes a career that brought major success in publishing and a long, turbulent public life in politics.With PTI Inputs- Ends