‘I could never hope to equal it again’: Jeffrey Archer announces next novel will be his last

Bestselling novelist Jeffrey Archer has announced his next novel, Adam and Eve, will be his last, coming out 50 years after his debut was published.The 85-year-old author has sold more than 300m books around the world since his first novel, Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less, was published in 1976, according to his publishers. His 1979 novel, Kane and Abel, was his biggest hit, selling more than 34m copies in 119 countries and 47 languages, and being reprinted more than 130 times.Archer’s 31st and final novel, Adam and Eve, described as “a powerful story which weaves together love, betrayal and the stark realities of a world at war” by publisher HarperCollins, will be out in English in October.In a statement, Archer said, “When I came across the idea for this novel a few years ago, I knew it was bigger in scope than anything I’d done before and I accepted that the research alone would be more demanding than anything I’d tackled in the past. When I finally sat down to write Adam and Eve I also realised, by the end of the first draft, that this was going to be my final novel, as at the age of 85 I could never hope to equal it again.”“I can’t quite imagine putting my pen down for good,” he added, saying that he might continue writing short stories. “But I can think of no more fitting way to bring my novel-writing career to a close.” Jeffrey Archer has sold more than 300m books around the world since his first novel, Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less, was published in 1976. Photograph: Sean Smith/The GuardianDespite selling hundreds of millions of books, which were often praised as compellingly readable, Archer failed to win over many critics over the decades. “To open one of his books was to risk being assaulted by a hectic claque of cliche, mixed metaphor, implausibility, solecism and sheer, unadulterated stodginess sufficient to send most readers screaming in breathless delirium to the mature, lucid and urgent pages of Barbara Cartland or Enid Blyton,” Robert McCrum wrote in 2009.Archer’s career as a novelist was often overshadowed by his colourful, if controversial public life.He was elected a Conservative MP in 1969 at the age of 29, but resigned from parliament in 1974 when he lost his life savings in a fraudulent investment scheme.In 1986, he resigned as deputy chair of the Conservative Party after the Daily Star reported he had paid a sex worker for sex. The following year he successfully sued the newspaper, claiming he’d never met the sex worker but had later paid her £2,000 to help her escape the press attention. Archer won £500,000 in damages in a trial where the judge famously lauded Archer’s wife’s “fragrance” in his instructions to the jury.Archer won the Tory candidacy for London mayor in 1999 but was forced to stand down after reports emerged he had persuaded a friend to lie to the court in the 1987 libel trial. Archer was suspended from the Tory party for five years and a perjury investigation began. At the same time he was starring in a production of his own courtroom play The Accused, about the trial of an alleged murderer in which the audience voted on the guilt of Archer’s character each night.In 2001 Archer was found guilty of two counts of perjury and two of perverting the course of justice, and sentenced to four years in prison, and was made to pay back the damages and costs. While in prison he wrote his three-volume prison memoirs, which were all bestsellers. He was released after serving two years, and spent subsequent decades focused on his writing career, which spans 50-odd works, and his extensive charity work.Archer remained a member of the House of Lords until his retirement in 2024.