Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams (Paperback)

I really enjoyed it but I’m not sure many people will. This is a book for the real hardcore fan. The kind of person who understands the reference “I just wondered how he knew they were size nine”.

As a result it assumes you’ve read, marked and inwardly digested all the books and radio series, I listened to the radio series from the first transmission and while never enough of a fan to attend a convention or wear a silly suit and make ‘beep beep’ noises, have actively sought out everything Douglas Adams wrote. Yet without having read around the subject I don’t know what made the Kamikaze sketch so funny and I felt a bit left out.
It makes depressing reading, MJ Simpson is too close to the subject and takes Adams’ brilliance as a given and there are few quotes or examples to enjoy, instead it’s a 300 page story of missed deadlines and displacement activity which is an uncomfortable way to learn about a hero.

It’s a cliché to say that you laughed and cried at a book, but with The Salmon of Doubt (Adams posthumous collection) I did both and had to stop to compose myself. It’s a much better tribute to the man.

Elsewhere, he gives us "for the first time ever", the story of what really happened about those early LPs. And guess what, the story is incredibly dull. THAT's why it hadn't been told before!

Still, there's a few details I hadn't known before, like Mr Adams working on a South Bank Show special about his inability to finish the 5th HHGTTG novel, instead of actually finishing the novel!

Simo has certainly done his research, which is exactly what a biographer should do (Nick Webb please take note). He debunks many of Adams's tall tales. For instance, it is now clear that there was no field in Innsbruck. His lack of access to Adams's family and private papers is a pity, particularly given how little Nick Webb managed to do with it. Because of this, there is no doubt that the definitive biography of Adams still remains to be written. Indeed, Simo doesn't repeat material from Neil Gaiman's "Don't Panic", fairly much compelling one to view the two books as parts of a single work. Simo isn't as good a writer as Gaiman, but that's hardly a crime. The prose is workman-like enough.

For me, the book's one great lack is a chronology. I would have liked a table showing exactly what Adams was doing and when. OK, OK, that might be a little obsessive, but there you go. Also, Simo doesn't attempt a critical analysis of Adams's work. This can be found in his Pocket Essentials work on Hitchhiker. Nevertheless, for anyone who is interested in Douglas Adams or indeed the worlds of British comedy and media from the 1970s, this is a more than worthwhile read. I do hope that Simo eventually gets the chance to produce a second edition that incorporates material from Adams's personal archives and also contains more critical material plus, of course, details of the fascinating afterlife of Adams's creations.