Best-selling British novelist and former Tory politician Jeffrey Archer, who was jailed for perjury in a high-profile libel case, has died at 86, his publisher HarperCollins said on Monday.
Archer sold over 300 million copies worldwide and was known for pacy thrillers such as his 1976 debut Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less and the Kane and Abel series. His final novel, Adam and Eve, was set to be released on Tuesday.
A prominent Conservative politician, Archer briefly served as a lawmaker before becoming a senior party official under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the mid-1980s.
But Archer suffered a very public downfall when he was convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice in 2001, and was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.
Kate Elton, HarperCollins’ UK CEO and Archer’s editor, said in a statement: “We’re all devastated to have lost a writer who has brought joy to generations of readers – and a true friend”.
With Reuters
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Kayla Olaya is a culture reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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