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).
March 1978 saw the first ever transmission of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on BBC Radio 4; the beginning of a cult phenomenon.
March 2020 marks the 42nd anniversary of that first transmission - 42 being the answer, of course, to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. To mark the occasion, Pan Macmillan are bringing back into print The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts with an introduction from Simon Jones.
The collection also includes the previously 'lost' Hitchhiker script from the 25th anniversary edition, 'Sheila's Ear' and the original introductions by producer Geoffrey Perkins and Douglas Adams.
This collection, which is a faithful reproduction of the text as it was first published in 1985, features all twelve original radio scripts - Hitchhiker as it was written and exactly as it was broadcast for the very first time. They include amendments and additions made during recordings and original notes on the writing and producing of the series by Douglas Adams and Geoffrey Perkins. For those who have always loved Douglas Adams, as well as for his new generation of fans, these scripts are essential reading and a must-have piece of Adams memorabilia.
This special anniversary edition will accompany reissued eye-catching editions of the five individual Hitchhiker books coming in March 2020: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe and Everything, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish and Mostly Harmless.
