Jeffrey Archer, best-selling novelist and scandal-prone Tory peer, dies at 86
The British author, whose thrillers sold more than 300 million copies, died suddenly at home, his publisher HarperCollins said. He had been due to appear at the Cheltenham literary festival this week to discuss what he called his final novel, "Adam and Eve."
Jeffrey Archer died on Monday "suddenly and peacefully at home, between writing sessions," HarperCollins announced, according to Le Temps. He was 86. His editor, Kate Elton, called him a "master storyteller and an editor's dream," the paper reported.
Archer had been scheduled to appear this week at the Cheltenham literary festival to discuss "Adam and Eve," the book he presented as his last novel, due out Tuesday, Le Temps reported. The tabloid The Sun said he had signed copies for fans at an event in London on Sunday.
According to his own website, cited by Le Temps, Archer's novels sold more than 300 million copies worldwide. He wrote the kind of fiction that drew on his own life: ambition, self-promotion and scandal, as The New York Times put it in its obituary.
Before turning fully to fiction, Archer rose through the ranks of Britain's Conservative Party to become deputy chairman, Le Temps and Le Monde both noted. His political ambitions, which once extended to a bid to become mayor of London, were repeatedly derailed by scandal. He was convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice after a friend admitted providing him with a false alibi during a 1987 libel trial Archer had brought against the tabloid Daily Star, which had alleged he slept with a prostitute; he had won £500,000 in damages from the paper before the case unraveled years later, according to Le Temps.
Archer disclosed in 2014 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, Le Temps reported. Le Monde described him as a best-selling British novelist whose political ambitions were "held back by scandals."
Sources
This article was written from these reports.
