Novelist Arthur Hailey Dies

Posted on November 27, 2004

The Washington Post reports that British novelist Arthur Hailey, author of the mega-sellers Hotel, Airport, Wheels and The Moneychangers died in his sleep of a stroke on November 24th at his home in Lyford Cay on New Providence in the Bahamas. Hailey, 84, pioneered the potboiling thriller which usually evolved around some natural disaster. Many of his books were made into films. He is survived by his wife, Sheila. Although the critics were never kind to Mr. Hailey, his fans loved him and his books. And who could forget Airport, which spent 65 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and launched a series of disaster movies which enthralled audiences of the 70's? Ah, the innocent 70's....Today's audiences would never want to sit through a two hour movie about womanizing, drinking airline pilots, snowstorms delaying flights and a mad bomber terrorizing passengers on an international flight. During the past few years if you wanted to see any of that stuff, all you had to do was turn on CNN.