The successful writer and also politician Jeffrey Archer has passed away this Monday at the age of 86, according to his publisher, HarperCollins, through an official statement.
The company has specified that Archer died "suddenly and peacefully at his home" while taking a break between his usual writing sessions.
Throughout five decades of literary career, Archer managed to sell more than 300 million copies and achieved worldwide fame with sagas such as 'Clifton Chronicles' or 'Cain and Abel'. His hometown, Wellington, in the southwest of England, often became a recurring setting for many of his stories.
Born in north London on April 15, 1940, he moved as a child to Weston-super-Mare, in Somerset, where his family acquired a house from the mother of comedian John Cleese.
In the political arena, he was a Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party and in 2001 he was imprisoned for perjury, after lying in the court case that confronted him with the newspaper 'Daily Star'. Two years later he regained his freedom and became a member of the House of Lords, from which he retired from political life in 2024. His last work, 'Adam and Eve', arrives in bookstores this very week.