A week spent wandering around Heathrow, chatting to passengers and staff must have been heaven, then: he even rhapsodises about the unsurpassed poetry of the room-service menu. While these facts don't do justice to de Botton's elegant prose, his evident curiosity about the subject matter, and his gentle exhortations to notice beauty even in the drabbest of surrounds, they do explain why it's so upbeat, so wordy, and so short.ĭe Botton admits that he often longs for his plane to be delayed so he can spend a few more hours in Departures. And, secondly, it was written over the course of just a few weeks, in between de Botton's stint as Heathrow's writer-in-residence in August and its publication in September. If you see a price sticker on a book, please ignore it.A couple of things you should know about this book: firstly, it was paid for by BAA as a promotional tool, although de Botton was given free reign to say what he wanted. Removing stickers from a book may damage it, so we refrain from doing so. A Week at the Airport is sure to delight de Botton's large following, and anyone interested in the stories behind the way we live.Īll of our books are second hand, and while you may not get the exact copy shown in the picture, all of our books are in very good condition. Like all airports, Heathrow (the 15th century village of Heath Row lies beneath the short stay car park) is a 'non-place' that we by definition want to leave, but it also provides a window into many worlds - through the thousands of people it dispatches every day. He will explore the magical and the mundane, personal and collective experiences and the interactions of travellers and workers all over this familiar but mysterious site. Working with the renowned documentary photographer Richard Baker, de Botton will produce an extraordinary meditation upon the nature of place, time, and our daily lives.
He will meet travellers from around the world, and will be given unprecedented access to wander the airport and speak with everyone from window cleaners and baggage handlers to air traffic controllers and cabin crew.
He will be installed in the middle of Terminal 5 on a raised platform with a laptop connected to screens, enabling passengers to see what he is writing and to come and share their stories. In the summer of 2009, Alain de Botton will be invited by the owners of Heathrow airport to become their first ever Writer in Residence.
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