LONDON: British novelist and former politician Jeffrey Archer died on Monday. He was 86.

Archer was a best-selling author and sold over 300 million copies worldwide, with his final novel Adam and Eve due to be published this month.

He was convicted of perjury in 2001 for lying in a libel lawsuit years earlier.

He was a Member of Parliament from 1969 to 1974, but did not seek re-election after almost going bankrupt. Archer revived his fortunes as a novelist. His novel Kane and Abel (1979) remains one of the best-selling books in the world, with 34 million copies sold worldwide. Overall his books sold over 320m copies.

Archer returned to politics and was deputy chairman of the Conservative Party from 1985 to 1986; he resigned after a newspaper accused him of paying money to a sex worker.

In 1987, he won a civil case and was awarded large damages because of this claim. He was made a life peer in 1992 and subsequently became the first Conservative to be selected as a candidate for mayor of London.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2026