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First in HM Prison Belmarsh and then in HM Prison Weyland, Archer used his incarceration profitably - by writing a three-volume account of his time inside entitled My Prison Diary.
Two years later, he was released, having served half of his sentence. "I learned a lot from it," he said. "The British people are very forgiving."
He retained his seat in the House of Lords, as there was no mechanism to remove an errant peer. He remained a member of Britain's upper house until his formal retirement in 2024.
Writing well into his mid-80s, he continued to churn out at least one, if not two, novels a year.
In the last years of his life, there were several volumes of The Clifton Chronicles: detailing the turbulent life of former dockworker, Harry Clifton.
There were also seven novels about a fictional policeman, William Warwick, who rises from humble constable in the Metropolitan police to the very top of his profession.
In January 2026, the 85-year-old announced that his forthcoming novel, Adam and Eve, would be his last.
An epic tale inspired by Hitler's indecision about whether to invade Britain, Archer poured everything into it. "Everyone would like to run their last 100m at the Olympics and win the gold medal," he told BBC Breakfast in September 2026.
Few critics praised Archer's prose style, his sense of humour, or the emotional depth of his characters.
But none could match his talent for relentless, aspirational, rags-to-riches plots that, once started, could not be put down.
Lord Archer often appeared incapable of separating autobiographical fact from fantasy in his continuing drive for public recognition.
He died a wealthy man, albeit one whom very few trusted.
