RIP Sir Alfred aka The Terminal Man

I was very sad to learn over the weekend of the death of Sir Alfred, the stateless man who famously lived in Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris for 18 years. We wrote his autobiography together entitled The Terminal Man. He was delighted when The Sunday Times described it as “a brilliant and profoundly disturbing book.” The airport shops carried copies and he would happily sign them for passing passengers and supporters.

I spent a fortnight with him in the airport (many years ago) recording and pulling together his extraordinary life story from his thousands and thousands of pages of hand written diaries. He had been living in the airport, sleeping on his red bench for 16 years at that point. He was to stay another 2 years bring his total airport stopover to a mighty 18 years. I visited him many times after the book came out to see how he was doing and to catch up. He loved discussing current affairs and world political events. He had taught himself several languages during his extended stay and read newspapers in English, French, and German.

Sir Alfred was a gent and one of a kind. I liked him very much. I hope he’s now at peace on a much more comfortable airport bench in the sky. Rest well, my friend. 

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