Best-selling British author Jeffrey Archer has died aged 86, bringing to a close an extraordinary five-decade career just as his final novel was preparing to reach readers.
Archer died “suddenly and peacefully at his home between writing sessions” on Monday, his publisher HarperCollins confirmed.
The prolific novelist, whose books sold more than 300 million copies around the world, remained remarkably active until the very end.
Just a day before his death, Archer appeared at a sold-out event at London’s Leicester Square Theatre alongside broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, meeting readers and signing hundreds of books.
His final novel, Adam & Eve, was due to be published just a day after his death.
Archer had already described the book as his last full-length novel and recently admitted he believed it could be the best he had written.
“When I finished, I said to my publisher, I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” he said in one of his final interviews.
“But, doesn’t every author think the last book they wrote is the best thing they’ve ever done? So I’m very nervous.”
HarperCollins UK chief executive and Archer’s longtime editor Kate Elton said the publishing world had lost a remarkable storyteller.
“It has been one of the great privileges of my publishing life to have been Jeffrey Archer’s editor,” she said.
“He was the master storyteller and an editor’s dream.”
She remembered Archer as phenomenally hard-working and devoted to repeatedly redrafting his work until he was satisfied with every word.
Archer began his literary career with Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less in 1976, but it was Kane and Abel, published three years later, that became one of the defining books of his career.
He went on to produce dozens of novels, short-story collections and plays, while later generations of readers discovered his work through the seven-book Clifton Chronicles series.
His books ultimately reached readers in more than 100 countries and dozens of languages.
Alongside his writing, Archer led a colourful and often controversial political life. He served as a Conservative MP, became deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and was made a life peer in 1992.
His political career was overshadowed by his 2001 conviction for perjury and perverting the course of justice, for which he was sentenced to four years in prison and served around two years.
He later turned that chapter of his life into another writing project, publishing his three-volume A Prison Diary.
But it was storytelling that remained the constant throughout his life – right until his final hours.
Brandreth, who had shared the stage with Archer only a day earlier, said his friend had been in “the most wonderful, ebullient form” during what would become his final public appearance.
“He was funny, engaging and self-deprecating – a great storyteller to the last,” he said.
Archer is survived by his wife Dame Mary Archer, with whom he celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary earlier this year, their two sons and five grandchildren.
His family has asked for privacy while encouraging readers to remember how much Archer was loved and celebrate what he achieved during his remarkable life.
And for millions of those readers, there will be one final story still waiting for them – a last book from a man who was, quite literally, writing until the end.
