Today's Edition
London (AFP)
British author Jeffrey Archer, who penned a series of best-selling novels, served as a Conservative MP, died suddenly at 86, his publisher HarperCollins said.
Archer died "suddenly and peacefully at his home between writing sessions" on Monday, HarperCollins said.
His editor, Kate Elton, called him a "master storyteller and an editor's dream".
The writer had been due to appear at Cheltenham Literary Festival this week to discuss "Adam and Eve", what he described as his final novel after 50 years of storytelling.
It was due to be published on Tuesday.
The Sun tabloid reported that he had been signing books for fans at an event in London on Sunday.
Archer had revealed in 2014 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The author led a life as colourful as the characters in his novels, which sold over 300 million copies, according to his website.
Ambitious from his earliest years, Archer used his charm and fund-raising abilities to climb almost to the top of the Conservative Party.
MP at 29
He joined the Tories while a student at Britain's prestigious Oxford University and in 1969 won a resounding by-election victory to become a member of parliament at the age of 29.
His parliamentary career came to an abrupt end in 1974 when he was brought to the brink of bankruptcy by the collapse of a Canadian industrial cleaning company in which he had invested.
However, with typical resilience he used his experiences as material for his first book "Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less", published in 1975, the first of a series of blockbusters set in the worlds of high finance and politics.
