In 2009, writer Alain de Botton was invited by the Heathrow airport authorities to spend a week there. He (and photographer Richard Barker) recorded the life of the airport, speaking to the people around &mdash from window cleaners and travellers to pilots. The result was a book titled A Week At the Airport A Heathrow Diary, evidently the inspiration for the title of Denis Stone&rsquos book. Stone, Heathrow airport&rsquos longest-serving resident photographer, has indeed spent a life at the airport &mdash 64 years, to be precise. He began work as a messenger boy at the age of 14, moving on to documenting the airport. But his focus was very specific celebrities. There are accounts that call him the &lsquogranddaddy of celebrity photography&rsquo. It must be true as you leaf through the photographs in this book, you can&rsquot help but wonder why you thought airports were dull places. For here are Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Richard Branson, Pamela Anderson, Naomi Campbell and a host of others, often wonderfully relaxed and smiling at Stone. There are some world leaders and royalty, and more than a few musicians, but Heathrow&rsquos resident photographer clearly had a thing for Hollywood stars.
