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July 31, 2023
Davies, a film lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, takes readers on an enjoyable tour through the archives of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams. Full-page scans of documents from throughout Adams’s career showcase his school assignments (a fictional biography of “international playboy” Christopher Turquoise), poetry, responses to fan mail, half-baked ideas (one note proposes a story about a pair of characters who happen upon a spacecraft in their garden), and television scripts for The Burkiss Way and The News Huddlines. The papers suggest a curious mind with a passion for cutting-edge technology, as seen in a memo from the late 1990s envisioning e-readers years before they became reality: “The device must be very simple. They are not computers, they are books which have computers in them.” The materials also reveal the author’s self-doubts, related in characteristically comedic fashion, as when he writes about a subplot in an early draft of Hitchhiker’s, “Scrap that plot on account it stinks, and it’s a millstone round everyone’s neck, most of all my own.” The selections offer an intimate look inside Adams’s process (“Today I am monumentally fed up with the idea of writing,” he vents in a note while at a creative impasse), and even tossed-off memos are sprinkled with the humor that endeared him to readers. Adams’s fans will be eager to dig into this treasure trove.

September 22, 2023
Douglas Adams was one of the most original thinkers and writers of the last half century. Editor Davies was granted permission to access Adams' archive of personal papers, and here he presents various letters, notes, scripts, and project ideas, with occasional glimpses into Adams' interior life, written in the man's own hand. This isn't a biography but an overview of the collection, presenting high quality scans of dozens of documents. Much of this material is transcribed for easier reading and informational captions provide context. Also included are letters to Adams written by some of those who knew him best while he was alive. The book's greatest value is the insight it provides on the ways Adams' ideas developed over time, from their initial genesis to eventual use on the page, the themes and concepts that ran through so much of his work. Davies' highlights will make readers yearn to dive deeper and see more of the treasures lying within this archival collection. This is for committed fans of Adams but it likely won't appeal to casual readers.

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