Arthur Hailey

Hailey, Arthur

Arthur Hailey, author (b at Luton, Eng 5 Apr 1920; d at Lyford Cay, New Providence Island, The Bahamas 24 Nov 2004). He served in the RAF 1939-47 as a flight lieutenant and immigrated to Canada in 1947. He became a successful writer of popular literature, and his forte lay in his practice of writing novels - dealing with fashionable subjects - that have been well researched. His literary career spanned a quarter of a century. After collaborating on adventure novels in the 1950s, he produced a string of best-sellers, including The Final Diagnosis (1959), In High Places, dealing with the Ottawa political scene (1962), Hotel (1965), Airport (1968), Wheels (1971), The Moneychangers (1975), Overload (1979) and Strong Medicine (1984). More recent works included The Evening News (1991) and Detective (1998). He wrote scripts for a number of movies, including Hotel (1966), Airport (1970) and Strong Medicine (1986) and numerous television plays.