By Sam Tobin
LONDON, Oct 5 (Reuters) – Jeffrey Archer, the bestselling British novelist and former politician who was jailed for lying in a high-profile libel case, died aged 86 on Monday, just one day before his final novel “Adam and Eve” was due to be published.
The confidant of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher lived a life that swung from the heights of luxury and fame to the lows of a two-year stint in prison for perjury over paying a woman for sex.
He sold more than 300 million copies of his books, spent a total of five and a half years on the New York Times bestseller lists and found fans around the world with his pacy thrillers, among them the 1976 debut “Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less” and 1979’s mass-selling “Kane & Abel”.
Publisher HarperCollins said Archer, who had met and signed books for fans in London’s Leicester Square Theatre on Sunday and had been scheduled to speak at events this week, died “suddenly and peacefully at home … between writing sessions”.
“We’re all devastated to have lost a writer who has brought joy to generations of readers — and a true friend,” said Kate Elton, HarperCollins’ UK CEO and Archer’s editor.
“When he set out to write ‘Adam and Eve’, he told me from the very beginning that it would be his final novel”.
HEAVY DEBTS CURTAILED HIS LIFE AS A LAWMAKER
Archer first made headlines when he entered parliament in 1969, aged 29, before he became a casualty of a fraudulent investment scheme which meant he did not stand for re-election in 1974 but went into writing to try to clear his debts.
“When I was three, I wanted to be four; when I was four, I wanted to be prime minister,” he was quoted as saying in 2001.
Despite only a short stint in parliament, he remained a central figure within the Conservative Party, spent more than 30 years sitting in the upper House of Lords chamber in parliament and raised millions of pounds for charity.
Cabinet ministers and celebrities flocked to his “champagne and shepherd’s pie” parties, with guests recalling how anyone looking for the bathroom at his London apartment was told to “Go past the Picasso and turn left at the Matisse”.
Some of that interest waned with his very public downfall.
In 1987, Archer sued the Daily Star tabloid for saying he had paid a woman for sex, winning a then-record £500,000 ($660,450) in damages.
The case returned to the public eye when he was selected as the Conservative candidate to become London’s first elected mayor in 1999. A former friend accused him of lying and Archer was eventually charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice, convicted and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. He served two years, during which time he wrote “A Prison Diary”.
ARCHER TRIAL NOTORIOUS FOR JUDGE’S SUMMING UP
The trial became notorious for the judge’s summing up of evidence given by Archer’s wife Mary.
“Remember Mary Archer in the witness box,” the judge, Bernard Caulfield, told the jury. “Your vision of her will probably never disappear. Has she elegance? Has she fragrance? Would she have, without the strain of this trial, radiance?”
And, of Archer, he added: “Is he in need of cold, unloving, rubber-insulated sex in a seedy hotel?”
The fall from grace did no harm to his literary career. HarperCollins said Archer’s books were sold in 119 countries and he was due to speak at an event in London on Wednesday and the Cheltenham Literature Festival this weekend.
Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservatives, said she was shocked by the news, having received a message from Archer as she attended her annual party conference on Monday morning saying: “great outfit, great speech, no need to reply”.
Asked recently by the BBC why he wanted “Adam and Eve” to be his last book, Archer said: “It’s been 50 very happy years. But there is always a time. I think the clever thing in life is when to get out.”
($1 = 0.7571 pounds)
(Writing by Sam Tobin and Kate Holton; editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Andrew Heavens)
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