Ordinarily, given Istanbul’s popularity as a Hippie mecca of the time, ‘recreational’ drugs were not expected to be met with severe action by the authorities. As Hayes was leaving the country with concealed drugs (apparently not his first such venture), an unexpected and ill-fated airport search took place, driven by the dangers of hidden explosives possibly being carried. Hayes’s detention occurred at a time when Nixon’s US presidency had impaired relations with Turkey and international tensions were heightened by plane hijacks and acts of terrorism. Photo of the author from first edition dustjacket The prisoner’s climactic escape years later, after his position looked hopeless, further elevated his memoir, combining a powerful biographical account of harsh punishment, endurance, strength of will, and resulting final freedom. The twenty-three-year-old university dropout was imprisoned in 1970, after being arrested with four pounds of hashish, an initial sentence of a few years subsequently being extended to life imprisonment. The Oscar-winning screenplay, written by Hollywood director Oliver Stone, was a retelling of American Hayes’s ordeal in a Turkish prison. The original story could never have created or perhaps even foreseen the international controversy and condemnation which would result from the 1978 ‘film of the book’.

From all of this, William “Billy” Hayes enjoyed a fair degree of celebrity, or notoriety, depending upon differing standpoints. With the added boost of a movie tie-in paperback, “Midnight Express” rapidly became an international bestseller, translated into numerous languages and reprinted over many years.

Whereas the 1977 US publishing of the first edition hardback was not of itself a significant event, everything changed dramatically in the following year when the story was transformed into a major cinema release. He enjoyed his visit to the #1968club so much that he volunteered to write about another film/book from the relevant year, which he has done – at some length! As you might gather, he’s a Film Man rather than a Book Man, being much happier with the visual medium, and here he explores the history of the film and book, as well as its publication history and some of the differences! 🙂Ī review of “Midnight Express” would not be complete without including the motion picture of the same title. Something a little different for the #1977club today, in the form of a guest post from OH.

Midnight Express by Billy Hayes