“In un mondo pieno di caos e imperfezioni, il terminal mi parve un rifugio prezioso e affascinante, pieno di logica ed eleganza…se mi avessero chiesto di portare un marziano a visitare un luogo che racchiudesse efficacemente tutto lo spettro dei temi che percorrono la nostra civiltà… mi sarei senz’altro diretto verso gli atri delle partenze e degli arrivi.”

 In the cloudless dawn, a sequence of planes, each visible as a single diamond, had lined up at different heights, like pupils in a school photo, on their final approach to the north runway. Their wings unfolded themselves into elaborate and unlikely arrangements of irregularly sized steel grey panels. Having avoided the earth for so long, wheels that had last touched the ground in San Francisco or Mumbai hesitated and slowed almost to a standstill as they arched and prepared to greet the rubber-stained English tarmac with a burst of smoke that made manifest their planes' speed and weight.  With the aggressive whistling of their engines, the airborne visitors appeared to be rebuking this domestic English morning for its somnolence. They were like a delivery person who cannot resist pushing a little too insistently and vengefully on the door bell of a still-slumbering household. All around them, the M4 corridor was waking up reluctantly. There were kettles being switched on in Reading, suits being ironed in Slough, children unfurling themselves beneath their Thomas the Tank Engine duvets in Staines.

“In a world full of chaos and imperfection, the terminal seemed to me a luxurious and fascinating refuge, full of logic and elegance… Had I been asked to take a Martian on a visit to a place neatly encompassing the whole spectrum of themes running through our civilization, I would certainly have made for the arrivals and departures halls.”