James Hilton
James Hilton’s first novel Catherine Herself was published in 1920 and in 1931, he enjoyed some success with And Now Goodbye and was able to take up writing fiction full time. Lost Horizon was published in 1933 and his mythical paradise of Shangri-La became a household word.
Later in 1933 Hilton was asked to write a 3,000 word short story for the magazine The British Weekly. After a week without inspiration he went out cycling on a foggy winter morning in Epping Forest when “suddenly an idea bobbed up and (he) saw the whole story in a flash”. In four days he had “banged out” a story about an elderly, much-loved schoolmaster which he entitled Goodbye, Mr Chips.
Hollywood called in 1935 and many of his books became world-wide hit movies, most notably, Lost Horizon (1937), Goodbye, Mr Chips (1939) and Random Harvest (1942). In 1954 Hilton died in hospital in Long Beach, California of liver cancer.