The immigration hall at Heathrow Terminal 5 is hyper-lit, with 2001: A Space Odyssey oblong lights that blare down from the ceiling. My flight lands early, just after the 6 a.m. threshold the airport maintains to reduce night noise, but already hundreds of people are stacked up in snaking queues, bleary-eyed, muffled in masks.
It is the last day of January 2021 and my first time arriving home to London after…
Jean McNeil
Jean McNeil has recently published Day for Night.
Articles by
Jean McNeil
Think of the long trip home.Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?Where should we be today?Is it right to be watching strangers in a playin this strangest of theatres?— Elizabeth Bishop
On February 29, the calendar’s most elusive…