Strong Medicine is the story of Celia Jordan - a modern-day heroine like no other - and her relationship with the people who work alongside her - and against her; of the cultured and wise Sam Hawthorne, the chief executive who never loses faith in her, but tragically loses faith in virtually everything else; of the brilliant young British researcher, Martin Peat-Smith, who races against time to give Celia the breakthrough the company desperately needs; of Vincent Lord, the disappointed scientist who is her bitter rival; of Dennis Donohue, the unscrupulous senator who vows to destroy her. And especially of the gentle and steadfast doctor who is her equal and her partner in every way.

Arthur Hailey was born in 1920 at Luton, where he attended school, then worked as an office boy and clerk. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined Force and rose through the ranks to become a pilot and Flight Lieutenant. In 1974 he emigrated to Canada successively a real-estate salesman, business-magazine editor and a sales and advertising executive. He became a full-time author in 1956 following the overnight success of his television play 'Flight into Danger' which was performed worldwide, later becoming a novel and a film. In his long career as a novelist he wrote eleven novels which have been published in twenty-seven languages. Arthur Hailey died on November 24, 2004.