It builds as I force myself to look into the facial recognition cameras to trigger the e-gates through the border. It must be something subliminal I’m picking up, but what? It starts when I see the HSBC billboards that line the passage to the passport control, with pictures of grandparents and kids alongside slogans like ‘together we thrive’. She means it half-jokingly, but it’s true that I sense a creeping darkness looming in the city that I can’t easily put words to, but feel in my body. Alarms start ringing in my nervous system, like those birds that cause a racket when danger is approaching.Ī friend tells me it’s because I’m an ‘economic empath’.
As I disembark at Gatwick airport and step into the terminal, I’m hit with the punch of an invisible forcefield.
I lived in London for 11 years, and hold a deep affection for the city, but when I visit now I feel physically uneasy.
