HATS OFF TO HAILEY

Having already rhapsodised about L. Garde du Peach and early Jilly Cooper, time surely to pay long and lavish tribute to Arthur Hailey. Nope, not Alex Haley of 'Roots' fame, but the Luton-born, Bahamas-based writer of "pure entertainment", who left us in 2004, but not before getting his teeth into politics, the newspaper business, drug company shenanigans, the automobile industry, hotels, airports and...international finance, selling millions as he went. Haileyites may row long into the night over which was Arthur's finest hour, but I was more than happy to get reacquainted with 'The Moneychangers', 50p from Cancer Research in Kelso and described as "his best effort" by American Publishers Weekly.

I would certainly have backed that view in 1977, when Hailey offered a more than welcome distraction from Physics homework and David Soul's domination of the singles charts (forget this being the year of Punk). Years before Enron and the Crash of 2008, Arthur gave us banking deals gone badly wrong,takeovers with strings attached, tales of greed and massive misjudgement. In 'The Moneychangers' boardroom breakdowns and dody ccorporate hospitality are complemented by all manner of nastiness on the streets, where the man you don't want to cross is Tony Bear Marino, a one-way glass devotee (never a good sign) with a penchant for "detailed, graphic reports of gangland beatings". Acid-spraying Tony makes Al Pacino's Tony Montana look like Hugh Grant. Hailey also took us into the cells, as debt-ridden, white collar thief Miles goes through a shaming arrest, confession, conviction, gang rape and a homosexual interracial relationship with lifer Karl, before finding redemption and a cure for his impotence ("what should have been a young man's ardent, rigid sword was flaccid, ineffectual") in the arms of forgiving Juanita ("he knew, through her, he had found his manhood once again").

Hailey adapatations were a mixed bag. Dean Martin was a rough-edged pilot in 'Airport' the movie. Rod Talor made a wooden hotel manager in 'Hotel'. Rock Hudson was meant to turn all the girls on in 'Wheels', the Detroit-based car series, with troubled wifr Lee Remick losing it big time, or having about as much fun as she did in 'The Omen'.

The Moneychangers on TV more than passed muster. A young Timothy Bottoms played Miles, one of the better casting decisions. Christopher Plummer was about the right age and managed the right amount of ironic detachment as randy Roscoe, who eventually (spoiler alert) plunges off a building having clocked up huge escort girl charges fooling around with Avril, "like a Greek Goddess in her nudity". Avril, all tumbling red curls and cool seduction in the book, was played by JOAN COLLINS, already in her early forties, pre-Dynasty. But some of the blokes were even more implausible. Kirk Douglas,pushing sixty, appeared as young Alex, the banking hero. Even at 13, I could see there was something not quite right with Kirk's make-up. Surely he could have given this one to Michael.