- Title:
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A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary
- Written by:
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Alain de Botton
- Read by:
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Nicholas Bell
- Format:
-
Unabridged CD Audio Book
- Number of CDs:
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2
- Duration:
-
2 hours 17 minutes
- Published:
-
July 01 2013
- Available Date:
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July 01 2013
- Age Category:
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Adult
- ISBN:
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9781743153918
- Genres:
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Non-fiction; Philosophy; Transport
- Publisher:
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Bolinda audio
Qty
Format
Price
Bolinda price
From the bestselling author of The Art of Travel comes a wittily intriguing exploration of the strange "non-place" that he believes is the imaginative center of our civilization.
We all spend longer than we would like waiting around in airports, but we rarely discover anything about our fellow travellers or those who work there.
In the summer of 2009, however, Alain de Botton was given unprecedented, unrestricted access to wander around Heathrow, one of the world’s biggest airports, having been appointed its Writer-in-Residence. He spoke with everyone from airline staff and senior executives to travellers passing through, and based on these conversations he produced this extraordinary account of life at an airport and what it says about modern existence.
Working with the renowned documentary photographer Richard Baker, he explores the magical and the mundane, and the stories that inhabit this strange ‘non-place’ that we are usually eager to leave. Taking the reader through the departures lounge, ‘airside’ and the arrivals hall, de Botton shows with his usual combination of wit and wisdom that spending time in an airport can be more useful and more revealing than we might think.
'Funny, charming and slender enough to pack in your carry-on'
Daily Mail
'I read Alain de Botton's A Week at the Airport with smiles of recognition, nods of approval and sighs of admiration. Most people can't wait to get away from airports. I'm very glad he stayed.'
Guardian
'You'll read this book with a wry smile. I love the way he sees the airport's security staff as 'like thriller writers ... paid to imagine life as a little more eventful than it customarily manages to be'. For his part, he gives meaning to things most people would see as meaningless - a very useful talent'
Evening Standard