I Married A Bestseller

I've been dipping into some of the books on our shelves which haven't been opened in a long time.

In 1978 I spent £5.50 on the hardback, published by Michael Joseph in association with Souvenir Press, of Sheila Hailey's I Married A Bestseller "an affectionately indiscreet memoir about life with Arthur Hailey".



The photo of the Haileys comes from The Bahamas News

As the peak of Hailey's fame was a long time ago, I shouldn't have been surprised to find little about him online. But he didn't die until 2004 and there's plenty of information, including this obit from The Daily Telegraph.

Extract : "Arthur Hailey, who has died at his home in the Bahamas aged 84, was one of the most commercially successful authors of all time, producing 11 books which sold more than 150 million copies, were translated into some 40 languages, and brought him tens of millions of dollars; much of it from his role as the inventor of the disaster movie."

Here's a bit from The Blog of Death.

"Although several of his books (Hotel, Wheels, The Moneychangers and Strong Medicine) were made into TV shows and films, Hailey was best known for writing Airport which stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for 65 weeks. Airport was adapted to the big screen in 1970 and helped launch the disaster movie genre. Hailey didn't write its three sequels, but he received more than $100,000 for each of them."

This is from Wikepedia.

"Each of his novels has a different industrial or commercial setting and includes, in addition to dramatic human conflict, carefully researched information about the way that particular environments and systems function and how these affect society and its inhabitants.
Critics often dismissed Hailey's success as the result of a formulaic style in which he centered a crisis on an ordinary character, then inflated the suspense by hopping among multiple related plotlines. However, he was so popular with readers that his books were guaranteed to become best-sellers.
He would spend about one year researching a subject, followed by six months reviewing his notes and, finally, about 18 months writing the book. That aggressive research — tracking rebel guerrillas in the Peruvian jungle at age 67 for The Evening News (1990), or reading 27 books on the hotel industry for Hotel - gave his novels a realism that appealed to readers, even as some critics complained that he used it to mask a lack of literary talent.
Many of his books have reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and more than 170 million copies have been sold worldwide in 40 languages. Many have been made into movies and Hotel was made into a long-running television series. Airport became a blockbuster movie with stunning visual effects.
Each of his novels has a different industrial or commercial setting and includes, in addition to dramatic human conflict, carefully researched information about the way that particular environments and systems function and how these affect society and its inhabitants.
Critics often dismissed Hailey's success as the result of a formulaic style in which he centered a crisis on an ordinary character, then inflated the suspense by hopping among multiple related plotlines. However, he was so popular with readers that his books were guaranteed to become best-sellers.
He would spend about one year researching a subject, followed by six months reviewing his notes and, finally, about 18 months writing the book. That aggressive research… gave his novels a realism that appealed to readers, even as some critics complained that he used it to mask a lack of literary talent."

The birth of a hugely successful teleplay

One of the most interesting passages in Sheila Hailey's book describes how her husband conceived the idea for his first success as a writer.

"It was late 1955. He was returning to Toronto by air from a business trip to Vancouver. The aeroplane was a four-engine Trans Canada Airlines [now Air Canada] North Star – large by standards of that time. His mind wandered to the flight deck and he visualised the two pilots at the controls. He speculated what would happen if they both got sick and couldn't fly the aeroplane. I wonder if I could fly it?

He was a rusty wartime pilot who hadn't flown for nine years, and even then, the largest aircraft he ever handled had only two engines. His mind raced on. What could put both pilots out of action? It was a Friday and there had been a choice of fish or meat for the evening meal. The answer flashed back: food poisoning from the fish.

Would there be a doctor on board? Yes – and he would also have to treat some of the passengers who had eaten the same food as the pilots. The others would have eaten the alternative choice – meat – including Arthur Hailey, who would have to fly the aeroplane, and the stewardess, who would help him at the controls.

For the rest of the trip he thought about his make-believe experience from beginning to end. By the time he reached Toronto he had worked out a scenario.

I met him at the airport.

His first words were: "'Darling, I have the most wonderful idea for a television play. Listen…' He was bubbling with excitement as he described the plot. I was caught up in his enthusiasm.

He wrote the play over two weekends and the five evenings in between…The teleplay was called Flight Into Danger, and it was presented on April 3, 1956…That single play, that single flight of the imagination, changed our lives. It was like winning the sweepstake.'