Even 30 years on this is still a fresh and funny series of stories, whether you read them or listen to the original BBC radio shows. The anarchic, or ‘random’ to use modern parlance, plot, place settings and characters makes them more appealing than a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster!
DON’T PANIC. Useful advice for Arthur Dent who is about to discover that along with his house, the Earth, is going to be destroyed by the Vogons and he is about to become embroiled in the search for the ultimate question to life the universe and everything (as we know the answer is 42).
The intergalactic adventures of Arthur Dent begin in the first volume of the 'trilogy of five', Douglas Adams' comedy sci-fi classic The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This edition features additional material and a foreword by Russell T Davies.
On 12 October 1979 the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor (and Earth) was made available to humanity - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
It's an ordinary Thursday lunchtime for Arthur Dent until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly afterwards to make way for a new hyperspace bypass and his best friend has just announced that he's an alien. At this moment, they're hurtling through space with nothing but their towels and an innocuous-looking book inscribed with the big, friendly words: DON'T PANIC.
Douglas Adams was born in 1952 and created all the various and contradictory
manifestations of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: radio, novels, TV,
computer game, stage adaptation, comic book and bath towel. The Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy was published thirty years ago......on 12 October 1979 and its phenomenal success sent the
book straight to number one in the UK bestseller list. In 1984 Douglas Adams
became the youngest author to be awarded a Golden Pan. His series has sold over
15 million books in the UK, the US and Australia and was also a bestseller in
German and many other languages. The feature film starring Martin Freeman and
Zooey Deschanel with Stephen Fry as the Guide was released in 2005 using much of
Douglas’s original script and ideas. Douglas lived with his wife and daughter in
Islington, North London, and briefly in California, where he died in 2001.
