Jeffrey Archer, best-selling author and former U.K. Conservative MP, dead at 86

British author and former MP Jeffrey Archer in 2013. Photo by LEON NEAL/AFP via Getty Images

Article content

British author Jeffrey Archer, who penned a series of best-selling novels, served as a Conservative MP and was convicted of perjury, died suddenly at 86, his publisher HarperCollins said.

Article content

Archer died “suddenly and peacefully at his home between writing sessions” on Monday, HarperCollins said.

Article content

Article content

His editor, Kate Elton, called him a “master storyteller and an editor’s dream.”

Article content

Article content

The writer had been due to appear at Cheltenham Literary Festival this week to discuss Adam and Eve, what he described as his final novel after 50 years of storytelling.

Article content

It was due to be published Tuesday.

Article content

The Sun tabloid reported that he had been signing books for fans at an event in London on Sunday.

Article content

Archer had revealed in 2014 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Article content

The author led a life as colourful as the characters in his novels, which sold over 300 million copies, according to his website.

Article content

Talented and ambitious, he was a high flyer who could never quite escape the whiff of scandal despite a talent for bouncing back from humiliating setbacks.

Article content

Politics and sex were the ingredients which ensured his success as a novelist.

Article content

But in real life the combination led to the downfall of the man who once hoped to become mayor of London.

Article content

He was tried for perjury and perverting the course of justice after a friend admitted he had supplied a false alibi during a libel case the peer brought against the Daily Star tabloid in 1987.

Article content

Archer had sued the newspaper over a claim he had slept with a prostitute, winning £500,000 in damages.

Article content

Article content

Ambitious from his earliest years, Archer used his charm and fundraising abilities to climb almost to the top of the Conservative Party.

Article content

He joined the Tories while a student at Britain’s prestigious Oxford University and in 1969 won a resounding byelection victory to become a member of parliament at the age of 29.

Article content

His parliamentary career came to an abrupt end in 1974 when he was brought to the brink of bankruptcy by the collapse of a Canadian industrial cleaning company in which he had invested.

Article content

However, with typical resilience he used his experiences as material for his first book Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less, published in 1975, the first of a series of blockbusters set in the worlds of high finance and politics.

Article content

Panned by the critics, they nevertheless earned him a fortune and Archer nursed hopes of a political revival while using his contacts and persuasiveness to raise millions of pounds for the Tories.

Article content

In 1985, his labours were recognized by then prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who named him Conservative deputy chairman, describing him as a model Tory high achiever.