Author and former politician Jeffrey Archer has died “suddenly and peacefully” at age 86.
Archer sold more than 320 million books over 50 years and was promoting his latest novel only last week.
Publisher HarperCollins said the author died suddenly and peacefully at home on Monday between writing sessions.
Jeffrey Archer was born in London in 1940 and grew up largely in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset.
He attended Wellington School and later studied at Oxford, where he was a successful athlete and became president of the Oxford University Athletic Club.
After working in teaching, charity fundraising and public relations, he entered politics and was elected Conservative MP for Louth in 1969 at the age of 29.
A disastrous investment left him heavily in debt in 1974, prompting him to leave Parliament and turn to writing as a way of rebuilding his finances.
His first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, was published in 1976, followed by the hugely successful Kane and Abel in 1979, which became his best-selling book.
Archer went on to become one of the world’s most commercially successful authors, with his novels, short stories and other works selling millions.
He also returned to politics, becoming deputy chairman of the Conservative Party in the 1980s and being made a life peer in 1992.
His political career ultimately collapsed after it emerged that he had lied during a successful 1987 libel case, and in 2001 he was sentenced to four years in prison for perjury and perverting the course of justice.
After his release in 2003, Archer continued writing, including the Clifton Chronicles and William Warwick series, as well as publishing prison diaries based on his experience behind bars.
His last novel Adam and Eve has just been released.
