Margo, companion in Stanwell

Stanwell has no station of its own, which puts most people off and does not trouble Margo in the slightest. Slim and 166 cm, dark brown hair straight to the shoulder blades, brown eyed, with a way of arriving that suggests she has been in the village for hours rather than minutes. Early thirties. Knightsbridge is her address, and she is candid that the drive out to TW19 is the longest run she makes regularly and worth doing properly.

She is the most self contained companion on this list. Not cold, simply unhurried: she takes her time with a room, with a conversation, with a glass of something. Her English is measured and she has a good memory for detail, the sort that means she can pick up a thread from a booking three months ago. Guests staying in the village for work, rather than passing through the airport, usually book her twice.

The hotel on Town Lane is the obvious choice here, an old building on a proper village street rather than a block on a dual carriageway. It is about ten minutes by car from Terminal 5 and roughly twenty five on foot, which nobody does. She is honest about the alternative: Stanwell is houses, a couple of pubs and the reservoir wall, so the evening is the hotel and the company, not a night out.

Everything about this corner of the map is on Stanwell. Give the desk the address, the night and your terminal if you are flying, and she will time the drive to suit. Booking explains how a village booking differs from a terminal one.

An evening in the village runs slowly and she builds it that way. She likes to arrive before dark if the booking allows, so there is time for a drink downstairs where the ceilings are low and the locals are minding their own business. Nobody here is between flights, which makes for a different room entirely.

Later she is content to stay in with the window open, because Stanwell is quiet enough to hear and the last departures go out over the reservoir. If you have an early Terminal 5 flight she works backwards from it without being asked. If you are here for the week she will tell you where to walk along the reservoir path in the morning, which is the one genuinely good thing about being based out here.