Arthur Frederick Hailey, AE (5 April 1920 – 24 November 2004) was a British/Canadian novelist whose plot-driven storylines were set against the backdrops of various industries.

His books, which include such best sellers as Hotel (1965), Airport (1968), Wheels (1971), The Moneychangers (1975), and Overload (1979), have sold 170 million copies in 38 languages.

An avid reader,[2] Hailey began to write poems, plays and stories at a young age.

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

[6] Settling in Toronto,[3] he held a variety of jobs in such fields as real estate, sales, and advertising.

[2] 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.

[7] This story of a plane flight in jeopardy after its crew is incapacitated was "the smash hit of the season," won enormous acclaim, and was broadcast internationally.

In 1959, he adapted his teleplay No Deadly Medicine (for which he won an Emmy nomination) into his first novel The Final Diagnosis.

[16] It established the template for Hailey's future works: ordinary people involved in extraordinary situations in a business or industry which is described in meticulous detail.

[28] His commercial success had declined somewhat[29] by 1990 with publication of The Evening News (Doubleday), and with his final novel, Detective (Crown), which appeared in 1997.

"[35] 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.

"[36] Reviewing Detective, Publishers Weekly wrote, "Old pro Hailey... remains adept at hooking readers with his propulsive brand of storytelling.

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.