Full disclosure: I’ve loved every single word – either written or uttered – to have emanated from Douglas Adams, from the books in the ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ series, to his ‘Dirk Gently’ series, to his declaration of love for deadlines … I was always going to adore this book. Even so, I wasn’t prepared for its scope or brilliance.

After Adams’ untimely death in 2001, his papers were lent to his alma mater, St John’s College, Cambridge. Kevin Jon Davies (animator on the ‘Hitchhiker’ series and television director) had the monumental task of sifting through the assembly of boxes to present this in digestible form. The quality of the reproductions is superb; the insights into Adams’ work are profound. Papers range from school reports (with no real hint of future success) to flyers for Cambridge Footlights’ theatre productions, doodles, encouragement and admonition of his own writing, drafts of radio plays, including the breakthrough Hitchhiker, notes for further stories, fan mail plus his responses, preparations for speeches and even outlines for board and/or computer games.

The unique Babel fish appears as a recurring pictorial motif, as do eulogistic letters from friends and colleagues paying their respects to Adams’ indefatigable talent. The most poignant comes from ‘his long-suffering book editor (and great friend)’ Sue Freestone.

Adams’ love of logic is apparent in university debating, where his acerbic wit punctures pomposity. His thinking wasn’t confined to the present: his prescience for technological advances was astonishing. The startling thing is where and how far his mind wandered.

Thankfully for us, he then committed those thoughts to paper, and had the presence of mind to store them. What an amazing gift to his readers.

42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams is edited by Kevin Jon Davies.

Reviewed by Bob Moore

ABOUT THE EDITOR

After the Hitchhiker’s Guide radio series aired in 1978, young art student Kevin Jon Davies sought out its little-known author Douglas Adams to record an early fanzine interview.

He went on to direct The Making of Hitchhiker, the 1993 documentary for BBC Video, and Adams invited him to art-direct The Illustrated Hitchhiker, a large-format book with pioneering digital composites.

Since then he has contributed to a number of Adams-related projects, including The Hexagonal Phase(2018), the final radio series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.