Tony Parsons, the bestselling author of Man and Boy, has been appointed as Heathrow's writer-in-residence.
During the week long residency beginning today the onetime NME journalist will spend his week researching a collection of short stories based on the comings and goings and everyday human drama that unfolds there in the coming week.
For inspiration Parsons 58 plans to "wander", speaking to cleaners, firemen, pilots, air traffic controllers and passengers.
"I think airports are places of huge human drama," he told the Guardian. "The more I see of it, the more I am convinced that Heathrow is a secret city, with its own history, folklore and mythology. But what has surprised me is the love the people who work there feel for the place. Everyone seems to think they are plugged into something majestic."
The book, Departures: Seven Stories from Heathrow, will be published by HarperCollins in October.
BAA will distribute 5,000 copies of the book to customers at Heathrow.
Parsons who will reportedly receive an undisclosed flat fee said BAA would have no editorial control over his writing.
Parsons tenure at the airport follows Alain de Botton’s residency at Heathrow two years ago. The philosopher published A Week at the Airport in 2009 as the airport's first in-house writer.
