42
eBook - ePub
Available until 3 Feb |Learn more

42

The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Available until 3 Feb |Learn more

42

The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams

About this book

When Douglas Adams died in 2001, he left behind 60 boxes full of notebooks, letters, scripts, jokes, speeches and even poems. In 42, compiled by Douglas's long-time collaborator Kevin Jon Davies, hundreds of these personal artefacts appear in print for the very first time.

Douglas was as much a thinker as he was a writer, and his artefacts reveal how his deep fascination with technology led to ideas which were far ahead of their time: a convention speech envisioning the modern smartphone, with all the information in the world living at our fingertips; sheets of notes predicting the advent of electronic books; journal entries from his forays into home computing – it is a matter of legend that Douglas bought the very first Mac in the UK; musings on how the internet would disrupt the CD-Rom industry, among others.

42 also features archival material charting Douglas's school days through Cambridge, Footlights, collaborations with Graham Chapman, and early scribbles from the development of Doctor Who, Hitchhiker's and Dirk Gently. Alongside details of his most celebrated works are projects that never came to fruition, including the pilot for radio programme They'll Never Play That on the Radio and a space-inspired theme park ride.

Douglas's personal papers prove that the greatest ideas come from the fleeting thoughts that collide in our own imagination, and offer a captivating insight into the mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest thinkers and most enduring storytellers.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access 42 by Douglas Adams, Kevin Jon Davies in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Social Science Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Foreword by Stephen Fry
  4. Introduction
  5. ONE: Early (Talking) Doors
  6. Dear Douglas: Margo Buchanan
  7. TWO: Cambridge Life
  8. THREE: Collaborations
  9. Feature: On ‘42’
  10. FOUR: Deep Thoughts
  11. FIVE: Doctor Who
  12. SIX: The Guide
  13. Dear Douglas: Dirk Maggs
  14. Feature: On Love
  15. SEVEN: Snail Mail
  16. EIGHT: Fame, Flying and Awards
  17. Feature: On ‘Bop Ad’
  18. NINE: Later Invitations to Collaborate
  19. Feature: On the Desktop
  20. TEN: Holistic Detective
  21. Dear Douglas: Arvind Ethan David
  22. ELEVEN: Last Chances
  23. TWELVE: Fan of Science and Technology
  24. Dear Douglas: Neil Gaiman
  25. THIRTEEN: Exploring the Digital World
  26. Dear Douglas: Robbie Stamp
  27. Feature: On ‘The Division Bell’
  28. EPILOGUE: Dead for Tax Reasons
  29. Afterword by Kevin Jon Davies
  30. Acknowledgements
  31. Permission Credits and Thanks
  32. A Note on the Editor
  33. Supporters
  34. Copyright