The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Hexagonal Phase
by Eoin Colfer; adapted by Dirk Maggs (BBC, 2018)
Colfer’s contribution to Hitchhiker’s probably works better in adaptation—as a continuation of the seminal radio series—than as a novel. Forty years on, the original actors have returned to their recording booths and sound ever-young, still invested in Adams’ cosmic zaniness.
Mostly Harmless
by Douglas Adams (William Heinemann, 1992); audiobook read by Martin Freeman (Bolinda, 2006)
An ingeniously plotted novel—by far the most coherent of the Hitchhiker’s books—and one in which Adams at last paid attention to characterisation; but the effect is spoiled somewhat by an incongruous (if by then expected) jokiness in the prose style.
Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen
by Douglas Adams & James Goss (BBC Books, 2018)
Goss takes delight in adding a fourth book to Douglas Adams’ trilogy of Doctor Who stories, channelling the unfocussed wit of ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’ (Adams’ version), diligently but to the detriment of the Doctor Who tale that could have been.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Live at the Almeida Theater, London, 1995
by Douglas Adams (Phoenix Books, 2008)
The greater part of this reading (or more accurately, performance) comes in the form of two long excerpts from Life, the Universe and Everything. Suddenly that which seems facetious on the page springs to life and we hear what Adams himself intended.
Galahad at Blandings
by P. G. Wodehouse (Simon & Schuster, 1964); audiobook read by Jeremy Sinden (Chivers, 1993; 2011)
In Galahad Threepwood surely we have the nascent (if more genteel) template for Dirk Gently, and in the comings and goings at Blandings Castle that of Douglas Adams’ much-vaunted fundamental interconnectedness of everything. This is Wodehouse at his fabulous, gab-gifted, exquisite best.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
by Douglas Adams (Pan, 1980); audiobook read by Douglas Adams (BBC, 1990)
Like the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy before it, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe is a satirical explosion of SF ideas, its brilliant droll humour being marred (this time around) only by Adams’ determinedly facetious approach to prose narrative.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
by Douglas Adams; adapted by Dirk Maggs (BBC Radio, 2007)
Although overly chaotic at the outset (and no doubt baffling to those not already familiar with Adams’ novel), Maggs’ adaptation finds its feet and diverges, becoming a clever piece of comedy. Harry Enfield makes a fine Dirk; likewise Billy Boyd as Richard.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams (Macmillan Digital Audio, 2007)
[first published by Pan, 1979] {Read by Stephen Fry}
In embellishing the riotous and extemporised cerebral peregrinations of the Hitchhiker’s radio series, Douglas Adams crafted one of the funniest (and most-quoted-from) novels of any genre. Stephen Fry’s range of narrative inflections subsequently affords the audiobook status as a distinct dramatic production.
Life, the Universe and Everything
by Douglas Adams (MacMillan Audio, 2006) [First published by Pan, 1982]
read by Martin Freeman
Reprising the vast zaniness and existential satire of the original Hitchhiker’s duology, Adams ups his trademark discursiveness, redoubles his protagonists’ fecklessness and yet achieves an oddly cohesive transcendence (while Martin Freeman’s delivery makes a virtue of Adams’ sometimes facetious approach to prose).
Last Chance to See: in the Footsteps of Douglas Adams
by Mark Carwardine (HarperCollins, 2009)
This richly poignant, fabulously Adamsey rare species travelogue rather belies the assumption that Carwardine was a literary passenger on the original Last Chance to See, merely there to undercoat the book with dry facts prior to Adams layering on the funny bits.