page_title: Arthur Hailey
section_title: Writing method and critical reception
hierarchical_section_title: Arthur Hailey / Writing method and critical reception
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Обложка романа Артур Хейли «На высотах твоих».
context_page_description: Arthur Hailey was a British-Canadian novelist whose plot-driven storylines were set against the backdrops of various industries. His meticulously researched books, which include such best sellers as Hotel, Airport, Wheels, The Moneychangers, and Overload, have sold 170 million copies in 38 languages.
context_section_description: Hailey would usually spend three years on each book. First, he would dedicate a year to research, then six months reviewing his notes, and finally 18 months writing. His 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. Hailey had no discernible literary pretensions; he said, "I'm a storyteller and anything else is incidental."
  Hailey was not a critical favourite. In the New York Times, Martin Levin called him "a plodding sort of writer."  Martha Gellhorn, reviewing The Evening News for The Daily Telegraph wrote, "This is not a book you cannot put down; it is a book you can hardly hold up. It will sell in millions and be translated into 34 languages. Possibly it is more readable in Icelandic or Urdu." And Time magazine, reviewing Wheels together with Harold Robbins's The Betsy, said, "Yes, junk fans, it's a mano a mano for novelists who are all thumbs. Two of the greatest schlockmeisters in the history of solid waste have just published novels about the auto industry."
  But Hailey's ability to tell a story was recognised by some critics. In the New York Times, John Reed conceded, in a review of Wheels, that "Mr. Hailey is nothing if not a competent craftsman." Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, in his New York Times review of The Moneychangers wrote, "What I had in mind was diversion, and, to tell the shameful truth, I found it." Reviewing Detective, Publishers Weekly wrote, "Old pro Hailey... remains adept at hooking readers with his propulsive brand of storytelling."
caption: The cover of the Russian edition of one of Hailey's books
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