Queen Camilla has paid tribute to the bestselling author and former politician Jeffrey Archer, who has died at the age of 86.

“Seldom does an author get to live a life as rich, varied and colourful as any of the characters in their books, or with as many surprising plot twists,” the Queen said in a statement.

She added that Archer was “not without flaw”, but that “friends will recall him as an irrepressible life force through all the many differing chapters of his life”.

The former Conservative MP was jailed for perjury in 2001 after being found guilty of lying and cheating in his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star.

The Queen said he was “an exception to the end” and that it was “with sadness that I learned of his death yesterday, on the eve of publication of his final work and so soon after appearing at my Queen’s Reading Room Festival”.

Archer was a supporter of the Queen’s Reading Room charity.

“My sympathies go to Mary and the family at this time of sorrow. I hope it may be some consolation for them to know what pleasure Jeffrey brought to me and to so many millions of readers through the pages of his works.

“Wherever the next page turns to, I trust there will be champagne and Shepherd’s Pie in abundance. Camilla R.”

Archer’s parties were known for serving champagne and shepherd’s pie to guests.

Archer sold more than 300 million books in his five-decade writing career, including the Clifton Chronicles and Kane and Abel, and often set the novels in his home town of Wellington, Somerset.

In a statement, Archer’s publisher HarperCollins said the author died “suddenly and peacefully at home” on Monday between writing sessions.

Archer was born in north London in 1940 but soon moved to Weston-super-Mare in Somerset and in 1969, Archer was elected MP for the Lincolnshire constituency of Louth.

He served as an MP for five years before becoming Conservative Party deputy chairman.

He moved to the House of Lords in 1992 but was jailed for four years for perjury and perverting the course of justice in 2001.

He was found to have lied in libel action he had brought against the Daily Star newspaper, in which he was awarded £500,000 in damages.

The Star had alleged Archer had slept with a sex worker.

The peer was found by the court to have perverted the course of justice by asking a former friend to give him a false alibi and producing fake diary entries to back up his story.

He was also found to have perjured himself on oath during the libel trial.

He was released from jail in 2003 and returned to the House of Lords until he retired in 2024.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch described Archer’s death as “devastating news”.

“We will miss him very much,” she told BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, adding that he had texted her earlier on Monday.

Badenoch said he was “very much loved by the Conservative family”, adding: “I’m glad that I saw him recently.”

Speaking about what she described as “other parts of his life”, she said: “He did serve his time, he made amends, and he wanted to do a lot of good in the world.”

Former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major said “we have lost a man who lived one of the most remarkable lives of our age”, and that he will be “much missed – and long remembered”.

Archer’s last novel, Adam and Eve, was released on Tuesday.

Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth told BBC Breakfast that he was with Archer on Sunday. “I mean, literally 72 hours ago, doing a show in the West End of London celebrating this book, the publication, and he was in great form.

“He didn’t really acknowledge that he’d changed much since being in prison, but I think he became a nicer person in some ways, a gentler, a milder person after the prison experience.”

Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith described Archer as “a remarkable man who did everything at full bore”, adding: “There were simply no half measures with him.”

Other former ministers also paid tribute. Sajid Javid said Archer had been a “dear friend”, while Sir Jeremy Hunt said Archer had “showed enormous kindness with his advice about how to become a writer”.

James Cleverly said the author and politician had been “a huge personality and fantastic storyteller”, and that he had been very supportive when his wife Suzie was recovering from cancer.

Reform UK member and former Conservative minister Nadim Zahawi, wrote: “Jeffrey Archer was a dear friend and an extraordinary human being. His gift for storytelling was matched by his wit, warmth and boundless energy. Life was never dull in Jeffrey’s company.”

Last week, Archer returned to his former school to promote his last book.

“It’s wonderful to come back. What I got a real thrill about when I was walking towards the library is seeing the young boys and girls and thinking, ‘that’s the next generation’,” Archer said at Wellington School.

Archer had been due to attend the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Saturday to discuss his final novel.

He and his wife Mary had celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this year, HarperCollins said.

The couple have two sons and five grandchildren.