Thursday, August 04, 2011

Author Tony Parsons: UK Novelist Spends Week at Heathrow Airport.


Travelers at London's Heathrow Airport could find themselves featuring in a new book penned by British author Tony Parsons.

57 year-old Parsons set up residence on Wednesday at the airport, known for being the busiest in the world.

He will be speaking to people at Heathrow and collating their experiences into a work of fiction.

Parsons has been given unrestricted access to parts of the airport, including the air traffic control tower.

[Tony Parsons, Author]:

"My brief is to live at the airport, to hang out at the airport, to go away and write whatever book that I want. It's going to be a collection of short stories. It's going to be called 'Departures', but basically I'm given complete physical and artistic and creative freedom."

During the author's stay at the airport he'll meet thousands of people, and despite his schedule being packed full of appointments, he insisted time will be given to walk around and speak to travellers.

Parsons, known for his multimillion pound selling novel "Man and Boy," is being commissioned by Heathrow airport. He hopes to humanize the British "institution" and bring back the magic of flying.

[Tony Parsons, Author]:

"I think we've forgotten how magical flying is, and how air travel is just one of the great experiences of life. I think especially since 9/11, we've come to see air travel as a bit of a chore, a bit of a slog, someone telling you to take your shoes off. I can clearly remember the sense of wonder and enchantment and magic that I felt when I started flying on a regular basis as a young journalist, because I didn't grow up flying. I'd like to bring a little of that back. You know a little bit of that excitement. Cos I think you know the man who is tired of airports is tired of life."

The airport is paying Parsons a flat fee for his time and overall he'll be spending a week on the premises.

Heathrow's acting Chief Officer, Terry Morgan, says Parsons' wit and personality will bring the airport to life.

[Terry Morgan, Heathrow Acting Chief Operating Officer]:

"About one-and-a-half million people will travel through the airport. It's a really exciting place to work, but for some people it's seen as a bit anonymous, so we thought we'd bring it to life a little bit, get to know some of the personalities, and what better way than to bring a really respected author, Tony, into the airport, give him free reign..."

Heathrow has suffered from negative publicity in the past. Last year alone they were criticized over the way they handled the severe winter weather that Britain witnessed in January.

[Terry Morgan, Heathrow Acting Chief Operating Officer]:

"It sometimes gets a bit of bad press when things go wrong. The vast majority of the time, it runs really smoothly, today's the classic example of that. But we just want to make sure that people understand the exotic mix of people that come to Heathrow from all over the world, and hopefully Tony's book will put a bit of life and character into that."

Parsons now has two months to finish the project before it is published in October.

Source: http://english.ntdtv.com

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