Alain de Botton to read new book at Heathrow

Alain de Botton is to follow his stint as a writer-in-residence at Heathrow Airport by becoming the hub's first ever reader-in-residence.

The author will mark today's launch of his new work A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary by giving readings to the thousands of travellers who pass through the facility.

Writing the book, which was commissioned by Heathrow, saw de Botton granted unrestricted access to all areas of the hub in order to record its inner workings.

Parts of the work were even crafted at a desk in the airport's Terminal 5, which allowed the author to include several passengers and members of staff as characters.

De Botton commented: 'I had one of the most interesting summers of my life as the writer-in-residence at Heathrow.

'Four weeks after starting to write, with a finished book in hand, I'm delighted to come back to Heathrow as the reader-in-residence.'

Reviewing A Week at the Airport in the Observer, Tom Robbins labels de Botton's writing as 'beautiful' and points out that even mundane occurrences such as a trip to the shoe-shiner lead him to profound thoughts.