Novelist and former Conservative politician Jeffrey Archer dies aged 86
British best-selling novelist and former Conservative politician Jeffrey Archer has died at the age of 86, after a life that spanned a political career, a near-bankruptcy scandal, literary success and a conviction for perjury, BBC reports.
Jeffrey Archer — British novelist, former Conservative MP, member of the House of Lords, and a man later convicted of perjury — has died at age 86, according to BBC, which described his life as being as colourful as the plots of his own novels.
Early life
Archer was born on 15 April 1940 in north London; within weeks his family moved to Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. His mother Lola was the first woman journalist at the local Weston Mercury newspaper. Archer later claimed his father William, some 40 years older than his mother, had been a decorated First World War hero — but a US newspaper later revealed the father was in fact a convicted fraudster who spent the war years conning people in New York.
Archer left school with only three O-levels and drifted through several jobs, including a brief stint in the police and work as a physical training instructor. While working at Dover College he styled himself with academic credentials implying a US degree, though his unofficial biographer later found his "alma mater" in America was actually a bodybuilding club. Despite this, the college backed his application to Oxford as a mature student. There he won an athletics Blue and married chemistry student Mary Weeden. His public profile rose further when he persuaded The Beatles to support a major fundraising effort for the charity Oxfam.
Political career and collapse
After serving as a Conservative councillor in London, Archer won the safe seat of Louth in Lincolnshire in a December 1969 by-election with a comfortable majority, becoming an MP. In 1974, he suffered a severe financial blow after investing heavily in a Canadian company claiming to have developed emission-cutting technology — which turned out to be a scam. Having taken out a second mortgage and borrowed elsewhere to fund the investment, Archer faced bankruptcy and was forced to resign his parliamentary seat.
Literary success
After settling with creditors, Archer wrote his debut novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, in 1976. Though panned by many critics, it sold well in both the US and UK. His 1979 novel Kane and Abel and 1984's First Among Equals followed, cementing his status as one of Britain's best-selling and highest-earning authors.
According to BBC, Archer was later made a peer, sitting in the House of Lords as Lord Archer, but his reputation was ultimately undone by a conviction for perjury — a downfall the broadcaster describes as entirely self-inflicted.
