Best-selling British author Jeffrey Archer dies aged 86

The British best-selling author Jeffrey Archer is dead. Archer died “suddenly and peacefully at home” on Monday at the age of 86, his publisher wrote in a statement from the evening, which the British media quoted.

According to the BBC, Archer's works have sold more than 300 million copies. Archer had finished his last book, “Adam and Eve,” and it is scheduled to be officially published today. His publisher, HarperCollins, called him a masterful storyteller who meant everything to his readers.

The British presenter Gyles Brandreth wrote in a post on the X platform that he had spent a wonderful evening with Archer on Sunday to celebrate his new book.

The London-born writer also pursued a political career and initially sat in the British House of Commons for the Conservative Party. At times he was even its deputy chairman. He was a member of the British House of Lords until 2024.

Two years in prison

His career was interrupted by a prison sentence in 2001. Archer had lied to a court about an alibi in a legal dispute with the Daily Star newspaper 14 years earlier and was subsequently charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. He served two years of the four-year prison sentence at the time.

Archer had his breakthrough at the age of 34 with the novel “All that glitters is not gold”. It helped him avoid bankruptcy, was published in 17 countries within a year and sold almost 30 million copies.

His best-known work is “Cain and Abel” from 1979. Over 100 million people read the epic about two unlikely men who were born on the same day. It has been translated into 42 languages ​​and published in more than 100 countries.