Jeffrey Archer, best-selling author and former British politician, dies aged 86

Best-selling author Jeffrey Archer died Monday at the age of 86, “suddenly and peacefully at his home, between two writing sessions,” said his publishing house HarperCollins.

His editor, Kate Elton, called him “a master storyteller and every editor’s dream.” The writer was due to attend the Cheltenham Literary Festival this week to discuss Adam and Eve, which he presented as his latest novel. Its publication was scheduled for Tuesday. The Sun tabloid reported that he signed books for fans at an event in London on Sunday.

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Jeffrey Archer revealed in 2014 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The author led a life as colorful as the characters in his novels, which have sold more than 300 million copies, according to his website. Ambitious, he could never quite shake off the scent of scandal, despite a certain talent for bouncing back after humiliating setbacks.

Politician

Politics and sex were the ingredients that ensured his success as a novelist. But in life, this combination led to the downfall of the man who once hoped to become Mayor of London. He was tried for perjury and witness tampering after a friend admitted providing him with a false alibi during a libel suit brought by the peer against the Daily Star tabloid in 1987. Jeffrey Archer sued the newspaper for claiming he had slept with a prostitute and won £500,000 in damages.

He had managed to climb almost all the ranks of the Conservative Party. But his parliamentary career ended abruptly in 1974 when he came close to bankruptcy after the collapse of a Canadian industrial cleaning company in which he had invested.

With his customary resilience, however, he used his experiences as material for his first book Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less, published in 1975, the first in a series of bestsellers set in the world of high finance and politics. Critically panned, these works nevertheless brought him a fortune, and Jeffrey Archer continued to harbor hopes of a return to politics while using his connections and powers of persuasion to raise millions of pounds for the Tories.

Sentenced to four years in prison

In 1985, his efforts were rewarded by the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who appointed him vice-president of the Conservative Party. But a year after his appointment he was forced to resign due to what he described as a “lack of judgement” after sending £2,000 to a prostitute, Monica Coghlan. He always maintained that he had paid this amount only to help her. In 1992, Thatcher's successor, John Major, recommended her elevation to the peerage, giving her the right to sit in the House of Lords, the upper house of Parliament.

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In 1999 he launched a campaign to become the Conservative Party's candidate for London's first elected mayor. But months later it emerged he had asked a friend, Ted Francis, to provide him with a false alibi in the case against the Daily Star. This forced him to abandon his candidacy and he was expelled from the party.

In 2001, he appeared in court and was convicted of perjury and witness tampering. He was sentenced to four years in prison, but was paroled in 2003.