Lost Horizon

This article is about the novel. For the band, see Lost Horizon (band).

Lost Horizon is a fantasy adventure novel by James Hilton. Hugh Conway, a veteran member of the British diplomatic service, finds inner peace, love, and a sense of purpose in Shangri-La, a utopian lamasery high in the Himalayas in Tibet whose inhabitants also enjoy longevity.

The book, published in 1933, was a huge success. In 1939 it was chosen to be the first novel published in paperback form, as Pocket Book #1. President Franklin D. Roosevelt named the Presidential hideaway in Maryland after Shangri-La (it has since been renamed Camp David.)

The book has been made into two films:

• 1937, directed by Frank Capra
• 1973, directed by Charles Jarrott (musical version)

Another very different film with the same title Lost Horizon (2000) has the original Spanish title La Cabecita rubia, and is the work of Argentinian director Luis Sampieri . It has been compared to Fellini's La Strada.

A BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Hilton's novel in three hourly episodes was broadcast in 1981