Jeffrey Archer, whose novels sold in 119 countries, passes away at 86

British novelist Jeffrey Archer, who earned as much adulation and fan following with his racy novels as infamy for lying in libel cases, has passed away. He was 86. In his lifetime he witnessed sales of an astounding 30 crore copies of his books. Adam and Eve, his last novel, was expected to be published shortly, his publisher HarperCollins has said. "We're all devastated to have lost a writer who has brought joy to ⁠generations of readers — and a true friend," a statement from Kate Elton, HarperCollins' UK CEO and Archer's editor read.

Legendary Author Jeffrey Archer Passes Away at 86 Ahead of Final Book Launch

Archer's most widely sold books include Kane and Abel, which was written in 1979. His first published novel is Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less which came out in 1976. It was a story of four men who hatched a lot of recover their lost investment. Other popular books are The Clifton Chronicles (a seven-part series), A Prisoner of Birth, published in 2008 and The William Warwick Novels which is a eight-book sequence.

There have been a few screen adaptations from his books. The major ones include Kane And Abel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, First Among Equals and Tales of the Unexpected.

Jeffery Archer was also a conservative politician, who also served as an MP from 1969 to 1974. He became a senior Conservative Party official in the 1980s when the party was under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher. The eighties was also  decade when Archer's fame as writer was tainted.

In 1987, Archer dragged the tabloid Daily Star to court, which wrote that the novelist bought sex from a woman and won an award of £500,000 as damages. But the triumph was sullied when Archer became London's first elected mayor in 1999. A gentleman who was a friend of Archer accused him of lying. The controversy snowballed and Archer was charged with perjury. It ended in a four-⁠year prison sentence. Archer managed to way serving two years. He spent the time behind bars writing A Prison Diary.

Though the trial of Archer rose to the headlines and tarnished his reputation as a rock star of fiction writing, in the end he remains one of the most popular writers in English language. His works sold in as many as 1a9 countries, according to HarperCollins. Archer enjoyed a total of five-and-a-half years on the New ⁠York Times ​bestseller lists.

Archer was supposed to speak about his final novel, Adam and Eve, this weekend at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.