ABSTRACT
In the course of a flight from London to Los Angeles, I generated a veritable document trail. My passport was the first item. There were a boarding pass and luggage receipt, the receipts for the coffee and croissant I consumed, the receipts for foot lotion and moisturiser, the newspaper and novel I bought to read on the flight; the airport shuttle bus ticket and the map of Los Angeles I picked up on arrival. A detective following my trail might have been able to deduce: that I had checked in one bag; where I sat in the plane; the possibility that I had not breakfasted before leaving the house; that I suffer from dry skin; my taste in books and my liking for crosswords; and that this was my first trip to Los Angeles. Most aspects of our lives are documented in some way and it is often the most trivial documents which reveal to others ordinary aspects of our lives.
