James Hilton’s books include three that were made into much-loved films: ‘Goodbye Mr Chips‘, ‘Lost Horizon‘, ‘Random Harvest‘. He wrote directly for the cinema as well and won an Oscar for ‘Mrs Miniver’.
‘Morning Journey‘ was one of his last books, published in 1951 three years before his death aged fifty-four.
It tells the story of the celebrated stage actress Carey Arundel, her first husband, the obsessed and obsessive director Paul Saffron, and the initial bliss she found with her second, the millionaire financier Austen Bond. It did not last as his suspicious nature and lack of trust came to the fore.
In echoes of his own story, Hilton lifts the curtain enough for us to get more than a glimpse of the creative life: the anxieties, the set-backs, the sacrifices and the rewards. It is a tale that remains relevant today.
The leading characters play out their lives against the backdrop of real-world events with the action moving from civil war Ireland to theatre in London and the United States before the Second World War, and to Hollywood after it.
Finding freedom during the war and returning to the stage, Carey Arundel becomes a film actress after it. ‘Morning Journey’ is the name of the award-winning Paul Saffron film in which Carey Arundel is the lead.