People still mourning political mandarin and bestselling novelist Jeffrey Archer

Having lived a life as colourful as the plot in one of his novels, Jeffrey Archer, who has just died, will always be seen as a man affected by a defective moral compass.

The former senior Conservative politician, peer of the realm best-selling author and convicted perjurer was always known for his drive, well-highlighted wealth and personal charm. He once claimed that his father William was a decorated hero of the First World War, but he himself was a convicted fraudster who, according to a US newspaper, spent the war years conning people in New York. In 1985, when Margaret Thatcher was UK’s Prime Minister, she gave him an unpaid job as Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party with responsibility for fundraising.

However, that lasted just a year and, a year later, the News of the World published a picture of Archer's friend, Michael Stackpole, paying £2,000 to a sex worker. He, again, bounced back from disaster and, again, rebuilt a shattered life, and would also spent five months as a probationary constable in the Metropolitan Police, before quitting to become a physical training instructor at a small prep school in Hampshire.

He was said to have once managed to persuade The Beatles to support a £500,000 fundraising effort for Oxfam, a charity which Archer supported. It was, however, discovered that another charity worked for alleged that he had misused expenses with claims for meals at posh London restaurants. In a by-election in the safe Tory seat of Louth in Lincolnshire, in 1969, he won the seat with a handsome majority.

But, in 1974, he suffered a blow after being persuaded to invest in a Canadian company which claimed to have developed a process to cut carbon emissions. That, for him, though, turned out to be a scam. He then started to building up his profile in parliament where he was seen as a liberal member of Conservative party.

Again embroiled with controversy, Archer resigned his party post and sued the Star newspaper for libel. Later threatened with bankruptcy, he was forced to quit his parliamentary seat. However, he managed to secure an agreement with his creditors and wrote his first novel, ‘Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less’ in 1976.

Despite being rubbished by many critics, it sold well in the US and then in Britain, earning Archer a considerable sum in royalties. Three years later, ‘Kane and Abel’ flew off the shelves. A third novel, published in 1984, ‘First Among Equals’, about a cutthroat competition to become Prime Minister, cemented Archer's position as one of Britain's best-selling and highest earning authors - enabling him to purchase the Old Vicarage at Grantchester near Cambridge, as well as a penthouse in London.

Few critics praised his style, sense of humour, or the emotional depth of his characters. His novels were flying of the bookshelves. Back in the cut-and-thrust of politics and with the support of new Conservative leader William Hague, Archer was selected as the Tory candidate for Mayor of London in 1999. But, again, the threat of scandal forced his to resign. Archer resigned his party post and sued the Star newspaper for libel.

Few critics praised his prose, sense of humour, or depth of his characters. But, for Lord Jeffrey Archer, he will always be highly respected by Tory mandarins and ‘book-bugs’ alike.

He was 86.