Douglas Adams: The author who toured the universe

M J Simpson has compiled the first full-length biography of Douglas Adams since the author's untimely death in May 2001. Publication will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the radio adaptation of the Hitchhiker books that earned Adams enduring popularity. Hodder is keeping much of the content of the book under wraps ahead of a serial deal, but Simpson promises it will provide significant new insight into the author's life. Headline is to publish Nick Webb's authorised biography of Adams later this year.

"I find myself in the position of apparently being the world's leading authority on Douglas Adams. I came across The Hitchhiker's Guide in 1980 and was hooked instantly. Over the years I've amassed huge amounts of information on Douglas and his work, and it has become my specialist subject.

"I worked for three years at sf magazine SFX, and wrote a long article for the 20th anniversary of Hitchhiker. In 2001 I wrote the Pocket Essential Hitchhiker's Guide, about three weeks before Douglas died of a heart attack. Interest in Douglas then soared, and I talked to my agent about a biography. I wouldn't have thought of doing it while Douglas was alive, but since there was a full stop to his story, I felt it could be done.

"I spent five or six months writing the book, and also helped Titan to update Neil Gaiman's Don't Panic book about Douglas, and to put together The Salmon of Doubt [recently published in paperback by Pan]. You wait a long time to do a book about Hitchhiker and then three come along at once.

"I hope the book is a tribute to Douglas. I interviewed 90 to 100 people, and found out an enormous amount of information I wasn't aware of before. However much fans know about Douglas, I hope there will be lots to read in the book that they don't.

"They will also find that a lot of what they know about him isn't actually true. The book is quite revisionist. Douglas was a great raconteur and loved giving interviews, but I found that he told the same stories over and over again, and that the details changed over time. If you go back to the root, you find that while he never made things up, things would often get exaggerated and become extraordinary. Plenty of the established stories about Douglas Adams came tumbling down--take all anecdotes you know about him with a pinch of salt.

"Douglas hated writing. He had a problem with deadlines that I've traced back to his schooldays and university, and in later years it became standard operating procedure to lock him in a hotel room to write a novel. But then you got not very good books, because that's not how he wrote.

"But this isn't a book about a man who wrote funny sf--it's not even a book about an author. Douglas was a fascinating person who led an extraordinary life. He had a unique position at the epicentre of many worlds--comedy, publishing, rock music, computing--and was surrounded by amazing people."