Jeffrey Archer: The storyteller and the twists in his tale

The writer understood that public life, like fiction, runs on appetite — for money, power, recognition and redemption — and he had a keen instinct for all four.

He understood that public life, like fiction, runs on appetite — for money, power, recognition and redemption — and he had a keen instinct for all four.

2 min readOct 7, 2026 06:15 AM IST First published on: Oct 7, 2026 at 06:15 AM IST

British writer Jeffrey Archer, who died at 86 on October 5, might have been the first to admit that his life was the sort of script that could have been rejected by an editor for being far too dramatic. Athlete, MP, political aspirant, bestselling novelist, convicted perjurer, comeback artiste — the arc of Archer’s life showed a great talent for reinvention, a phoenix-like ability to rise from the ashes. He understood that public life, like fiction, runs on appetite — for money, power, recognition and redemption — and he had a keen instinct for all four. Even his death, arriving on the eve of the publication of Adam & Eve, carries the theatricality of a final twist.

Archer’s literary life began after a personal setback, a financial defraud that had rendered him bankrupt. But Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, published in 1976, and followed in succession by A Quiver Full of Arrows (1980), First Among Equals (1984), and novels such as Kane and Abel (1979) and Shall We Tell the President? (1986) led to a reversal of fortunes. Despite a lukewarm reception by critics, his books sold over 300 million copies in a career spanning five decades. His appetite for drama, however, proved ruinous in politics — his ascent through Conservative ranks and his ambitions for high office ended in disgrace after a libel case, followed by his conviction for perjury and imprisonment. But prison turned into more source material, a new chapter in another new beginning that brought more bestsellers.

In an interview to fellow writer Anthony Horowitz for The Sunday Telegraph Magazine in 2011, Archer had said, “The people who survive are storytellers.” In death as in life, Archer put the twist in the tale.