12 Facts About Arthur Hailey

1.

Arthur Frederick Hailey was born on 5 April 1920, in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, the only child of George Wellington Hailey, a factory worker, and Elsie Wright Hailey.

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2.

An avid reader, Hailey began to write poems, plays and stories at a young age.

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3.

At fourteen, Arthur Hailey failed to win a scholarship which would have enabled him to continue his schooling.

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4.

Arthur Hailey joined the Royal Air Force in 1939, and served as a pilot during World War II, eventually rising to the rank of flight lieutenant.

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5.

Arthur Hailey was editor of a trade magazine called Bus and Truck Transport.

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6.

Arthur Hailey's professional writing career began in 1955 with a script called Flight into Danger, which was purchased by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and telecast on 3 April 1956.

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7.

Arthur Hailey had intended to stay for just two years, but liked it so much that he remained there for the rest of his life.

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8.

Arthur Hailey continued to write, but—except for the slim The Lyford Legacy: A Brief History of Lyford Cay from 1788, —Arthur Hailey now wrote only as a hobby.

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9.

Arthur Hailey's papers are housed at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, and at the Harry C Moore Library of the College of The Bahamas.

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10.

Arthur Hailey's research was painstaking: he read 27 books about the hotel industry for Hotel, he spent months at a Detroit car plant for Wheels, and he spent time—at the age of 67—with rebel guerillas in the jungles of Peru for The Evening News.

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11.

In 1978 Sheila Hailey published I Married a Best Seller: My Life with Arthur Hailey, which was not always complimentary, but the couple remained together for 53 years.

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12.

Arthur Hailey died at age 84 in his sleep on 24 November 2004, at his home in Lyford Cay in the Bahamas, of what doctors believed to be a stroke.

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