Through the suites and foyers of the St Gregory Hotel in New Orleans, move a host of vividly drawn characters – the hotel industry tycoons, the guests, the staff, men and women, young and old, the totally dedicated, the utterly amoral.

There is robbery and blackmail, a near-disastrous orgy, a take-over battle, and a love story that you will never forget…

Arthur Hailey was born in 1920 at Luton, where he attended school, then worked as an office boy and clerk.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined Force and rose through the ranks to become a pilot and Flight Lieutenant.

In 1974 he emigrated to Canada successively a real-estate salesman, business-magazine editor and sales and advertising executive.

He became a full-time author in 1956 following the overnight success of his television play ‘Flight into Danger’ which was performed worldwide, later becoming a novel and a film.

In his long career as a novelist, he wrote eleven novels that have been published in twenty-seven languages.