A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary

In the summer of 2009, bestselling author Alain de Botton will be given unprecedented access to wander around Heathrow, one of the worlds biggest, oldest and busiest airports. He will speak with everyone from window cleaners and baggage handlers to air traffic controllers and cabin crew, and will meet travellers from around the world, and based on these conversations he will produce an extraordinary meditation upon the nature of place, time, and our daily lives. Working with the renowned documentary photographer Richard Baker, he will explore the magical and the mundane, personal and collective experiences and the interactions of travelers and workers all over this familiar but mysterious site. 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. A Week at the Airport is sure to delight de Bottons large following, and anyone interested in the way we live today and the stories of peoples lives.