Novelist and ex-politician first appeared in AW in 1957 as a teenage sprinter and later won an Oxford Blue.

Jeffrey Archer, the bestselling author and former politician who was also a talented sprinter in his youth, has died aged 86.

His publisher, HarperCollins, said he died "suddenly and peacefully at home" on Monday (Oct 5).

Archer sold more than 300 million books, but athletics was where he first made his mark. His name first appeared in the pages of AW on June 22, 1957, when, aged 17, he was second in the Somerset youths' 100 yards in 10.5. He went on to compete at the English Schools Championships, where he was eliminated in the intermediate boys' 100 yards but played a key role in Somerset's winning intermediate boys' 4x110 yards relay team.

Born in London on April 15, 1940 and raised in Somerset, Archer attended Wellington School before going to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he studied for a diploma in education. He gained a Blue in athletics, competing as a sprinter and hurdler, and was president of Oxford University Athletic Club in 1965-66. His best marks included 9.8 for 100y in 1964 and 21.5 for 220y in 1966.

Archer was elected to the Greater London Council in 1966 and, aged 29, became Conservative MP for Louth in 1969. He stood down in 1974 amid financial difficulties linked to a failed investment scheme and turned to writing, with novels including Kane and Abel and the Clifton Chronicles making him one of the world's best-selling authors. Many were set in Somerset.

He later became Conservative deputy chairman and was made a life peer in 1992. In 2001, though, he was jailed for four years after being found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice over his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star. He was released in 2003 and returned to the House of Lords, where he remained until retiring in 2024.

Archer kept his links with running. In 2004 he completed the London Marathon in 5hr 26min, raising money for charity. His final novel, Adam and Eve, is due to be published this month.