Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams

The joke has been running for more than three decades and the momentum seems as strong, or perhaps even stronger, than ever.

There are the influential friends as well – both Google's HQ and Cern's Large Hadron Collider have office complexes named for the number. Others post lists of favourite 42s, snap '42' photos, or enjoy throwing a 42nd birthday party (Pink Floyd performed on stage with Adams for his special day). Often you hear it as a simple namecheck, a gently conclusive 'Douglas Adams', said whenever a spontaneous 42 is seen as a seat number, a restaurant table, or a homework answer. 'Forty two'.Īdams – who died, aged 49, 10 years ago this May – had launched the world's greatest universal joke. And Douglas: so long, and thanks for all the washing-up.The plot for the six episodes leapt very much wherever Adams wanted to go on the day, but led to a pivotal gag that went like this a giant computer called Deep Thought, having spent exactly 7.5m years pondering on Life, the Universe and Everything finally and solemnly announces that the Ultimate Answer is. In a wonderfully funny and personal tribute to his friend, he writes: ‘Reader, enjoy yourself. Hailed by the Independent as ‘arguably the finest comic novelist working in Britain today’, he also shared a flat with Adams while this book was being written. This edition is newly introduced by Jon Canter. Jonathan Burton, in his third Hitchhiker commission, has created an inspired visual interpretation of moments such as Marvin the Paranoid Android talking to a mattress. But they also make you think of party-dress material, not to mention the big ugly men – Bowie and Bolan excepted – who used spangliness to express their supposed glamour and sexual ambivalence in the era of Glam Rock. The sparkles evoke all the stars in the universe. It immediately cheers you up, which may be something to do with the sparkly effect on the front, spine and back. ‘Lovingly illustrated by Jonathan Burton, The Folio Society edition of Life, the Universe and Everything is a thing of great beauty. Above all, this is the book in which we find out why the Earth has been shunned by the rest of the galaxy (essentially, it’s down to cricket). We also learn the art, or rather knack, of flying (simply aim for the ground, and miss). Delightful examples abound, whether it is Arthur leaping to his feet ‘like an author hearing the phone ring’, or the invaluable acronym SEP (‘Somebody Else’s Problem’). As with the other books in Douglas Adams’s trilogy of five, the ‘plot’ of this third novel is above all an opportunity for the author’s pyrotechnic displays of wit and erudition.

Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams