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What might have happened to her is the starting point of the story. Jeanette flies into London Airport one evening, walks across to the airside part of the terminal and is never seen again. (A misguided attempt to do so will lead to a memorable experience.) So we are there to do the only thing allowed to us - to wait in a state of suspense, a herded passenger.Īnyway, the story of Airside, the novel, concerns a young American woman called Jeanette Marchand, a famous Hollywood star. It is simply impossible to go back the way we came from. But it’s impossible to leave unless it’s on the aircraft on to which we are booked. There is only one thing we can do in airside, which is leave. It’s not impatience, fearfulness or boredom. Most of us feel a little disoriented or apprehensive while waiting for a flight. Once through all that we experience the unique nullity of airside. There is a sense that at any time, for any random reason, we might be challenged by someone in a uniform. Closed-circuit cameras are everywhere, and some of them are checking our faces against a database. We cannot proceed through airside without a boarding pass in hand, or a passport.

This is where we have to be electronically scanned, have our bags X-rayed, our laptop looked at, where we put keys and loose change in a tray, where sometimes we have to remove our belt, or transfer little tubes and bottles of harmless unguents into a plastic bag. On an outward journey we hasten towards:Īirside. If we are arriving from a flight, landside is where we are able to pick up our luggage. In landside we check to see if the flight is on time, or when it is likely to board. All travellers are familiar with the fact that every airport has two ‘sides’. The book is largely about the liminal and always slightly disconcerting experience of passing through an airport. Here is the cover for the Gollancz edition of my new novel Airside, which will be published later this month.

The Tide Went Out by Charles Eric Maine