Wish You Were Here : The Official Biography of Douglas Adams

by WEBB, NICK

• ISBN13: 9780345476500
• ISBN10: 0345476506
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-03-29
• Publisher: Ballantine Books

Summary

It all started when Douglas Adams demolished planet Earth in order to make way for an intergalactic expresswayand then invited everyone to thumb a ride on a comical cosmic road trip with the likes of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, and the other daft denizens of deep space immortalized in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Adams made the universe a much funnier place to inhabit and forever changed the way we think about towels, extraterrestrial poetry, and especially the number 42. And then, too soon, he was gone. Just who was this impossibly tall Englishman who wedded science fiction and absurdist humor to create the multimillion-selling five-book "trilogy" that became a cult phenomenon read round the world? Even if you've dined in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, you've been exposed to only a portion of the offbeat, endearing, and irresistible Adams mystique. Have you met the only official unofficial member of Monty Python's Flying Circus? The very first person to purchase a Macintosh computer? The first (and thus far only) author to play a guitar solo onstage with Pink Floyd? Adams was also the writer so notorious for missing deadlines that he had to be held captive in a hotel room under the watchful eye of his editor; the creator of the epic computer game Starship Titanic; and a globetrotting wildlife crusader. A longtime friend of the author, Nick Webb reveals many quirks and contradictions: Adams as the high-tech-gadget junkie and lavish gift giver . . .irrepressible ham and painfully timid soul . . . gregarious conversationalist and brooding depressive . . . brilliant intellect and prickly egotist. Into the brief span of forty-nine years, Douglas Adams exuberantly crammed more lives than the most resilient catwhile still finding time and energy to pursue whatever side projects captivated his ever-inquisitive mind. By turns touching, tongue-in-cheek, and not at all timid about telling the warts-and-all truth, Wish You Were Here is summation as celebration a look back at a life well worth the vicarious reliving, and studded with anecdote, droll comic incident, and heartfelt insight as its subject's own unforgettable tales of cosmic wanderlust. For the countless fans of Douglas Adams and his unique and winsome world, here is a wonderful postcard: to be read, reread, and treasured for the memories it bears.

Author Biography

NICK WEBB was a publisher for nearly thirty years before, perversely, turning to writing. He commissioned The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy while he was an editor at Pan Books, and remained good friends with Douglas Adams until the end of the author's life. He lives in Hackney.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xi
Introduction	xiii
Prologue	3	(18)
Not from Guildford After All	21	(24)
Finishing School	45	(12)
St. John's, Smokers, Networks and Friends	57	(22)
The Seedy Flats	79	(22)
The Origin of the Species	101	(26)
Making It	127	(20)
Hearing the Music	147	(22)
Whooshing By	169	(18)
Hippodust, Films and the Telly Saga	187	(30)
On Love	217	(18)
More Books, Money and a Sense of Place	235	(26)
Last Chance to See	261	(18)
The Digital Village	279	(32)
Turtles All the Way Down	311	(12)
Appendix One Twenty-five Years On	323	(4)
Appendix Two Chronology of the Major Works	327	(2)
Appendix Three Full Credits for the Radio Series	329	(2)
Appendix Four Douglas's Favourite Beatles' Tracks in Order of Preference	331	(2)
Index	333