Artur Kheyli

Arthur Hailey was a Canadian novelist of British origin who created a number of bestsellers in the genre of the industrial novel.

He was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. He served in the Royal Air Force from the start of the Second World War in 1939 until 1947, after which he moved to Canada. After holding several jobs, he began writing books. In 1956 he became a professional writer, starting work for CBC television on the drama Flight into Danger (published as Runway 08). After the success of the novel Hotel in 1965, Hailey moved to California; in 1969 he moved to the Bahamas to escape Canadian and American taxes, which took up to 90 percent of his income.

Each of his novels includes various financial or technical details, in addition to the dramatic relationships between the characters: information, presented in accessible language, on how a particular device or system functions and how they affect society and the individuals within it. The novels show in detail the genesis of a system, its development, the inevitable problems that eventually lead to a crisis, which is happily resolved by the end of the novel.

Critics often reproached Hailey for the fact that his success was the result of using numerous literary clichés, and that his style consisted of a midlife crisis caused by anxiety and mood swings, used in parallel storylines. Be that as it may, his books were very popular with readers and invariably became bestsellers.

Hailey spent about a year working on the plot, about six months making notes and drafts, and as a result about a year and a half writing the book itself. Such painstaking work—gathering information on guerrilla warfare in the Peruvian jungle at the age of 67 for Overload (1990), or reading 27 books on the hotel business for Hotel—gives his works a realism visible to readers, although some critics regard this as a cover for weak literary talent.

Many of Arthur Hailey's books became No. 1 bestsellers on the New York Times list. More than 170 million copies were sold worldwide in 40 languages. Many