Archive Douglas Adams/Hitchhiker’s Guide news for September 2003

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30th September 2003
Wish You Were Here now on sale
As expected, copies of Nick Webb’s book Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams are now on sale across the UK, though you may have to search for them. I found several in one of the two Leicester branches of Waterstones, but none in the other branch. The book is 370 pages long with 16 pages of black and white photos, many of them previously unseen, and costs a kibblesworth under nineteen quid.

My own Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams is of course still available. Since Nick and I were working from largely different sources and approaching the subject from different angles, you really need to buy both I’m afraid! In the meantime, I shall be posting pointers and links to reviews of Nick’s book but won’t be reviewing it myself anywhere for obvious reasons.

29th September 2003
WYWH serialisation bounced
The Mail on Sunday tells me that the extract from Wish You Were Here which should have been in yesterday’s paper will instead be published next Sunday (5th October).

29th September 2003
Battle of the Books repeated
The ‘Adams vs Pratchett’ edition of The Big Read: Battle of the Books will be repeated in the small hours of tomorrow morning at 1.25am. Thanks to Dave Haddock for the tip-off.

28th September 2003
WYWH non-serialisation mystery
Most curious: I had it on good authority from two different reliable sources that an extract from Nick Webb’s Wish You Were Here was due for publication in today’s Mail on Sunday – but there is no sign of it. I will contact the paper tomorrow and find out what happened. My guess is that it was dropped to make room for a two-page feature on the late Robert Palmer. Tomorrow is the book’s embargo date and it goes officially on sale on 6th October.

26th September 2003
Camel barks again!
On 10th December 1998 the TDV website (as was) made one of the oddest announcements in recent history: ‘The camel has barked. It happened today at around 6pm local time.’ Only a very small, select group of people knew what this meant, and they weren’t telling. A follow-up message has now been posted at douglasadams.com. It is surely an omen, sayeth the wise ones. Watch this space.

26th September 2003
eBaywatch for week ending 26th September
Here’s something I’ve never seen before: a promotional postcard for the American DVD release of the Hitchhiker’s TV series (ends 29th September; no bids yet; starting price $2.00). ZZ9 used to sell plastic mugs with ‘Don’t Panic’ printed on them, but they don’t any more. If that leaves a gap in your HHGG ephemera collection, you can bid for this one (ends 1st October; no bids yet; starting price £1.50). The Starship Titanic ‘First Class Cruise Kit’ includes the Strategy Guide, an audiobook of the novel, and both PC and Mac versions of the game, as well as some other stuff (ends 26th September; latest bid $12.05).

24th September 2003
Douglas Adams in Pythons Autobiography
Douglas Adams is mentioned three times in the massive new book about Monty Python, The Pythons Autobiography By The Pythons, published this week in Britain and next week in the USA. All three mentions provide fascinating new insight into Douglas’ relations with the team, but the most interesting is a reproduction on page 225 of Douglas’ letter to Graham Chapman, severing their writing partnership. Frustratingly the letter is undated but Douglas does mention that he has just taken a new job guarding an Arab royal family.

21st September 2003
WYWH spotted on sale in France
Nicolas Botti, proprietor of the Guide Galactique site, reports that he has bought a copy of Nick Webb’s Wish You Were Here from a Paris branch of WH Smith. This is actually very naughty of the Parisian shop because legally the book should not be seen by anyone except embargoed reviewers until the extract is published next weekend (in, I believe, The Mail on Sunday), though the fact that the shop is in France may mitigate this somewhat. The book is not due to go on sale officially until 6th October although copies are likely to start turning up in British shops from 30th September.

19th September 2003
Wish You Were Here reviews embargo
Nick Webb’s book Wish You Were Here has been given an embargo date of 29th September, so don’t expect to see any reviews before then. This is because an extract will be published in a national newspaper on that date, just as Hitchhiker was embargoed until after an extract had appeared in The Times. Nick’s book is published on 6th October, when there will also be a launch party in London.

19th September 2003
eBaywatch for week ending 19th September
Prime among this week’s offerings is this paperback of the first Hitchhiker’s novel which was signed at one of Douglas’ Golden Pan Awards presentations by not only the author but also three cast members: Sandra Dickinson, Mark Wing-Davey and David Dixon (ends 28th September; no bids yet; starting price $199.00). Another nice signed item is the Comic Relief Christmas Book inscribed by Douglas and Terry Jones (ends 21st September; latest bid £3.00). And those of you who missed picking up the March 2003 Book & Magazine Collector with my Adams feature and bibliography can get a copy here (ends 22nd September; latest bid 80p!).

18th September 2003
New edition of Keine Panik received
The new German edition of Neil Gaiman’s Don’t Panic arrived at Magrathea this morning. The original (1987) edition was published by Ullstein in 1990, and the 1993 edition with updates by David K Dickson was published, also by Ullstein in 1995. This new edition from Heyne, who publish all of Douglas Adams’ works in German, includes the additional chapters which I wrote in 2002 and is officially on sale from next month. It has been translated by Gerald Jung and Ralph Schmitz, and the rather scary cover illustration, is by Hendrik Dorgathen. The cover price is a kibblesworth under nine Euros.

17th September 2003
Douglas Adams to feature in new work on contemporary literature
I have been approached by Marshall Cavendish, a big American publisher, to contribute an essay on Douglas Adams to their forthcoming reference work Popular Contemporary Writers. According to the publisher this will “bring together the signed work of many scholars in an eleven-volume, lavishly illustrated compendium designed both to support the research needs of high school students and to supplement their awareness of the life and output of 96 authors whose writings enjoy immense popularity among the young.” It will be published in 2005.

12th September 2003
eBaywatch for week ending 12th September
Yet another new one for the bibliography: it seems that in (presumably) 1982 Pan issued the first three HHGG paperbacks in a boxed set entitled Don’t Panic (ends 18th September; no bids yet; starting price $1.00). Never seen it before, may never see it again. This promotional key-ring was apparently created by a particular British bookshop as a freebie for a SLATFATF signing session (ends 15th September; latest bid 99p). What about a 1984 issue of long-defunct SF mag Fantasy Empire, including Neil Gaiman interviewing Douglas (ends 14th September; no bids yet; starting price $1.95)? Finally, this paperback Dirk Gently omnibus was only very briefly available ten years ago and is now very rare indeed (ends 16th September; no bids yet; starting price £3.00).

11th September 2003
Wish You Were Here review copies received
Advance review copies of Nick Webb’s biography of Douglas Adams, Wish You Were Here, landed on the desks of journalists in the SF and mainstream press this morning. I will be providing pointers to on-line and print reviews of the book as I find them.

11th September 2003
Mark Carwardine to discuss LCTS at literary festival
Mark Carwardine will be speaking about his wildlife project with Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See, at the Southwold Literature Festival in Suffolk in November. ‘In the late 1980s,’ says the brochure, ‘Mark Carwardine teamed up with Douglas Adams to produce a six-part radio series for the BBC. They spent a year travelling around the world in search of the rarest and most endangered animals. He offers an entertaining behind-the-scenes look at their travels and reassesses the position ten years after their intrepid journey.’ Mark’s talk is in St Edmund’s Hall at 4pm on Monday 17th November. Tickets cost £7.50 and can be booked by phone on 01803 867373 or through the website. (Thanks to Andy Mabbett for alerting me to this.)

11th September 2003
Adams vs Pratchett ‘talking point’ at h2g2
A wee bit late but this has only just come to my attention. The weekly ‘talking point’ discussion on h2g2 for 5th September, presumably taking its cue from the recent Battle of the Books, is ‘Douglas Adams vs Terry Pratchett’. The discussion is illustrated with a picture of the two authors squaring up for a fight in the manner of popular animated series Celebrity Deathmatch! For the record, Terry has read Douglas’ work but Douglas never read Terry’s, and the only time that the two ever actually met was at the premiere for the film Congo.

10th September 2003
Hitchhiker UK paperback available for pre-order
Following the early appearance of the US hardback of Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams on Amazon, the UK paperback is now available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk. It will published on 2nd February 2004 and costs £8.99. The paperback will include much the same updates as the US edition, but incorporated into the text rather than as a separate ‘new introduction’, and the Foreword is the John Lloyd one, not the Neil Gaiman one. So there are now three editions of Hitchhiker on Amazon, all slightly different…

9th September 2003
Hitchhiker US edition available for pre-order
The American edition of Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams is now available for pre-order from Amazon for $19.57, a saving of 30% off the cover price of $27.95. It is also listed on Amazon.co.uk for £15.75; on Amazon.de for ¤27.38; on Amazon.fr for ¤22.95; and on Amazon.jp for a bargaintastic ¥2,774. The US edition tidies up a few typos which crept into the UK hardback (despite rigourous proof-reading!) and includes a new introduction which updates some points, based on information which has come to light since March. Readers unfamiliar with British society and popular culture will find a handy list of dramatis personae and brief guides to how education and broadcasting work in the UK. Finally, the Foreword by John Lloyd has been replaced with one by Neil Gaiman, who is probably more familiar to US readers. The book goes on sale at the start of November.

5th September 2003
eBaywatch for week ending 5th September
Blimey! Here’s something even I, compiler of the definitive Douglas Adams bibliography, didn’t know about: poet Heathcote Williams’ 1990 book Falling for a Dolphin with an introduction by Douglas (ends 11th September; no bids yet; starting price £3.99). Another obscurity is a collection of travel writing called Not So Funny When It Happened with a story by Douglas (ends 8th September; no bids yet; starting price $5.99). Never having seen a copy, I don’t know if this is an original Adams piece or an extract from Last Chance to See. Finally, one book I did know about, but have never before seen offered for sale, is the immensely collectible Hockney’s Alphabet (ends 10th September; no bids yet; starting price $9.99), for which Douglas of course wrote the section on ‘Y’.

4th September 2003
Nick Webb interviewed
Nicholas Botti, webmaster of Le Guide Galactique has scooped the first interview with Nick Webb, author of the forthcoming ‘official biography’ of Douglas Adams, Wish You Were Here. The interview is on-line in both English and French versions.

3rd September 2003
New David Dixon interview published
Issue 2 of The Gazette, an occasional publication by the excellent archive TV site The Mausoleum Club, has just been published, including an interview with David Dixon. David was of course Ford Prefect in the TV series of Hitchhiker’s Guide but has many other credits and the interview covers his wide-ranging career. The Gazette costs £4.70 including p&p (or £4.95 if paying by PayPal) – full details here or contact The Mausoleum Club for details of cost outside the UK.

1st September 2003
Tertiary Phase is go – or is it?
Today’s Guardian says that a third radio series of Hitchhiker’s Guide – the long-awaited ‘Tertiary Phase’ – is in the works for broadcast next year, being made by independent production company Above the Title for the BBC. No names of cast, scriptwriter, producer, etc are mentioned. Is there any truth in this? Well, some indicator of the Guardian’s high standard of journalism can be gleaned from their citing of Jay Roach as current director of the HHGG film, when Nick and Garth’s attachment was widely announced two months ago. Furthermore they say that the new radio series will be based on The Restaurant at the End of the Universe but of course Restaurant was adapted from the radio scripts so if there is ever a third radio series it must be based on one of the other books, most likely Life, the Universe and Everything.

To be honest, I am not at liberty to say what parts of this story are ‘accurate’ nor precisely how accurate those parts may be. So please do not ask me. When I know not only what is going on (which I do) but also that I’m allowed to say what is going on (which I’m not), I will make a suitable announcement here. For now, do not believe anything you read in the papers or on the web (especially in the Guardian – see also this letter from me which they printed, pointing out an inaccurate statement about Douglas in an earlier feature) unless it contains an official statement from either the BBC or Ed Victor Ltd.

The same newspaper includes an interesting interview with John Lloyd. Written by the same hack as the Hitchhiker’s news story, it ludicrously claims that John and Douglas “created” the cartoon series Doctor Snuggles, for which they wrote two episodes as freelancers.