Jeffrey Archer, ‘Kane and Abel’ Author and Ex-MP, Dies at 86

Jeffrey Archer, the bestselling novelist behind “Kane and Abel” and a former Conservative MP whose political career ended in a perjury conviction, has died at the age of 86. His publisher, HarperCollins, said he died “suddenly and peacefully at home” on Monday, Oct. 5, between writing sessions, BBC News and The Irish Times reported.

The timing was striking. Archer’s final novel, “Adam and Eve,” was released on Tuesday, Oct. 6, according to the BBC. He had announced earlier this year that it would be his last book. On Sunday, he met and signed books for hundreds of fans at a sold-out event with broadcaster Gyles Brandreth at the Leicester Square Theatre in central London, HarperCollins said, as reported by The Irish Times. He had also been due to appear at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Saturday to discuss the novel.

Brandreth wrote on X: “He was in the most wonderful, ebullient form and had such a great reception from a packed house. He was funny, engaging and self-deprecating – a great storyteller to the last.” Speaking later to BBC Breakfast, Brandreth said Archer “became a nicer person in some ways, a gentler, a milder person after the prison experience.”

Archer sold more than 300 million books over a five-decade writing career, including “Kane and Abel” and the Clifton Chronicles, the BBC reported. Kate Elton, the HarperCollins UK chief executive who was also his editor, called him “the master storyteller and an editor’s dream,” describing him as “phenomenally hard-working, utterly committed to completing draft after draft to get every word as perfect as possible,” in a statement carried by The Irish Times.

His life off the page was just as dramatic. Born in north London in 1940, Archer was elected MP for Louth in Lincolnshire in 1969, served five years in the House of Commons and later became deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. He was made a life peer in 1992. In 2001, he was jailed for four years for perjury and perverting the course of justice after a jury found he had lied in a 1987 libel case against the Daily Star, in which he had been awarded £500,000 in damages. According to the BBC, the court found he had asked a former friend to provide a false alibi and had produced fake diary entries. He was released in 2003 and returned to the House of Lords until he retired in 2024.

Tributes arrived quickly. Queen Camilla, whose Queen’s Reading Room charity Archer supported, said in a statement: “Seldom does an author get to live a life as rich, varied and colourful as any of the characters in their books, or with as many surprising plot twists.” She added that friends would recall him “as an irrepressible life force through all the many differing chapters of his life.”

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch called his death “devastating news” and told BBC Breakfast, “We will miss him very much.” Former prime minister Sir John Major said “we have lost a man who lived one of the most remarkable lives of our age.” Former Conservative minister Nadhim Zahawi wrote that Archer “was a dear friend and an extraordinary human being.”

Archer and his wife, Mary, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this year, HarperCollins said. The couple have two sons and five grandchildren. For more of today’s top stories, visit our Daily News page.

Verification: Details of Archer’s death, career, conviction and the tributes come from BBC News (Oct. 5–6) and The Irish Times (Oct. 5, via PA), with Queen Camilla’s statement as published by BBC News (Oct. 6).