Lost Horizon Lost Horizon Lost Horizon is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton. The book was turned into a movie, also called "Lost Horizon", in 1937 by director Frank Capra. It is best remembered as the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamasery located high in the mountains of Tibet. Hugh Conway, a veteran member of the British diplomatic service, finds inner peace, love and a sense of purpose in Shangri-La, whose inhabitants enjoy unheard-of longevity. The prologue and epilogue are narrated by a neurologist. This neurologist and a novelist friend, Rutherford, are given dinner at Tempelhof, Berlin, by their
James Hilton (novelist) his two most remembered books, "Lost Horizon" and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" while living in a house on Oak Hill Gardens, in Woodford Green in north London. The house still stands, with a blue plaque marking Hilton's residence. By 1938 he had moved to California, and his work became more connected with the Hollywood film industry. While in California, Hilton was also host of one of radio's prestige drama anthologies, "Hallmark Playhouse", from 1948-1952. He married Alice Brown, a secretary at the BBC, just before they left for the United States in 1935, but they divorced in 1937. He then married