{"id":2403,"date":"2026-10-06T07:38:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T07:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/?p=2403"},"modified":"2026-10-06T07:38:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T07:38:49","slug":"jeffrey-archer-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/2026\/10\/06\/jeffrey-archer-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"JEFFREY ARCHER \u2018MASTER STORYTELLER\u2019 DIES AGED 86"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jeffrey Archer&#8217;s death has been announced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is with great sadness that HarperCollins announces that bestselling author Jeffrey Archer, Lord Archer of Weston-Super-Mare, died suddenly and peacefully at home, aged 86, on 5 October, between writing sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His global publisher, HarperCollins, confirmed that the author passed away &#8220;suddenly and peacefully at home&#8221; on Monday, October 5, 2026, between writing sessions. Regional publishers and distributors, such as South Africa&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jonathanball.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jonathan Ball Publishers<\/a>, have joined in honoring his memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-rank-math-toc-block\" id=\"rank-math-toc\"><h2>Table of Contents<\/h2><nav><ul><li><a href=\"#bestselling-author\">Bestselling Author<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#career-and-legacy\">Career and Legacy<\/a><ul><li><a href=\"#the-master-storyteller\">The Master Storyteller <\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#final-novel\">Final Novel<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#political-career-and-scandal\">Political Career and Scandal<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a href=\"#authors-family\">Author&#8217;s Family<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#message-from-kate-elton\">Message from Kate Elton<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#source-and-references\">Source and References <\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"bestselling-author\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bestselling Author<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jeffrey Archer was one of the bestselling authors of the last half-century whose new book, <em>Adam and Eve<\/em>, which the author had always planned to be his final novel, is published globally by HarperCollins this week.<br><br>Jeffrey\u2019s career is the stuff of publishing legend. His first novel, <em>Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less<\/em>, was published in 1976, the start of an incredible literary career: he spent a total of 14 years and five months on the <em>Sunday Times<\/em> bestseller lists and 5 \u00bd years on the <em>New York Times<\/em> bestseller lists, selling 300 million books in 119 countries in 49 languages.<br><br>He is the only author ever to have been a No.1 <em>Sunday Times<\/em> bestseller in fiction, short stories and non-fiction. His readers meant everything to him, and on Sunday he met and signed books for hundreds of fans at a sold out event at the Leicester Square Theatre in London.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"446\" height=\"687\" src=\"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Master-Storyteller-dies-bestseller.jpg\" alt=\"MASTER STORYTELLER\u2019 JEFFREY ARCHER DIES AGED 86\" class=\"wp-image-2405\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.6491998915107133;width:331px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Master-Storyteller-dies-bestseller.jpg 446w, https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Master-Storyteller-dies-bestseller-195x300.jpg 195w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 446px) 100vw, 446px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h2 id=\"career-and-legacy\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Career and Legacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"the-master-storyteller\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Master Storyteller <\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jeffrey Archer sold more than <strong>300 million books<\/strong> worldwide across 119 countries over a five-decade literary career. He was the mastermind behind monumental bestsellers like <em>Kane and Abel<\/em>, <em>Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less<\/em>, and <em>The Clifton Chronicles<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"final-novel\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Final Novel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His 27th and final novel, <em>Adam and Eve<\/em>\u2014a World War II historical fiction epic\u2014was scheduled for its official global release on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, the day after his death. Jeffrey Archer had just completed a sold-out promotional fan event in London over the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"political-career-and-scandal\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Political Career and Scandal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beyond his massive literary success, Archer led a highly turbulent political life. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) and Deputy Chairman of the party under Margaret Thatcher before being made a life peer in 1992. His political career was famously upended in 2001 when he was convicted of perjury and served two years in prison, an experience that inspired his <em>Prison Diaries<\/em> series<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"authors-family\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Author&#8217;s Family<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Archer is survived by his wife of 60 years, Mary, their two sons, and five grandchildren. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A member of the House of Lords for over a quarter of a century, the author is survived by his wife who he was infinitely proud of, Dame Mary Archer, their two sons, James and William, two granddaughters and three grandsons (one of whom just finished a school biography on him).<br><br>They all celebrated Jeffrey and Mary\u2019s 60th wedding anniversary this year with many friends at The Old Vicarage in Grantchester.<br><br>The family have asked for privacy at this time, and to share how much he was loved and how proud they are of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"message-from-kate-elton\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Message from Kate Elton<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kate Elton, HarperCollins UK CEO and Jeffrey\u2019s editor, said: \u2018It has been one of the great privileges of my publishing life to have been Jeffrey Archer&#8217;s editor. He was the master storyteller and an editor&#8217;s dream &#8211; phenomenally hard-working, utterly committed to completing draft after draft to get every word as perfect as possible, and a true champion of the &#8216;team&#8217; nature of great publishing.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When he set out to write <em>Adam and Eve<\/em> he told me from the very beginning that it would be his final novel &#8211; he was so excited about the scale of it and told me that if he could pull it off it would equal anything he&#8217;d previously written, on which basis he couldn&#8217;t imagine embarking on any future novels.\u00a0 He did indeed pull it off &#8211; and he was utterly thrilled by the early reader reactions.\u00a0 We&#8217;re all devastated to have lost a writer who has brought joy to generations of readers &#8211; and a true friend.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"source-and-references\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Source and References <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jonathanball.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jonathan Ball Publishers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/ckj0l401dvpgo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/ckj0l401dvpgo<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeffrey Archer&#8217;s death has been announced. It is with great sadness that HarperCollins announces that bestselling author Jeffrey Archer, Lord Archer of Weston-Super-Mare, died suddenly and peacefully at home, aged 86, on 5 October, between writing sessions. His global publisher, HarperCollins, confirmed that the author passed away &#8220;suddenly and peacefully at home&#8221; on Monday, October&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,29,111,28,32],"tags":[315,314,313,312],"class_list":["post-2403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-lifestyle","category-press-release","category-women-in-media","category-world","tag-aged-86","tag-died","tag-jeffrey-archer","tag-storyteller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2406,"href":"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403\/revisions\/2406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happeningnews.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}