Shangri-La Shangri-La Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel "Lost Horizon" by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise, particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia – a permanently happy land, isolated from the world. In the novel, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living hundreds of years beyond the normal lifespan and only very slowly aging in appearance. The name also evokes the imagery of the exoticism of the
James Hilton (novelist) James Hilton (novelist) James Hilton (9 September 190020 December 1954) was an English novelist best remembered for several best-sellers, including "Lost Horizon" and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips". He also wrote Hollywood screenplays. Born in Leigh, Lancashire, England, Hilton was the son of John Hilton, the headmaster of Chapel End School in Walthamstow. He was educated at The Leys School, Cambridge and then at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he wrote his first novel and was awarded an honours degree in English literature. He started work as a journalist, first for the "Manchester Guardian", then reviewing fiction for the "Daily Telegraph". He wrote