Douglas Adams Books In Order

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Books In Publication Order

  1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
  2. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980)
  3. Life, the Universe and Everything (1982)
  4. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1984)
  5. Mostly Harmless (1992)
  6. And Another Thing… (2009)

Dirk Gently Books In Publication Order

  1. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (1987)
  2. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988)
  3. The Salmon of Doubt (2002)

Doctor Who Books In Publication Order

  1. Shada:The Lost Adventure (2012)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Starship Titanic (1997)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. The Meaning of Liff (With: John Lloyd) (1983)
  2. The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book (1986)
  3. Last Chance to See (With: Mark Carwardine) (1990)
  4. The Deeper Meaning of Liff (With: John Lloyd) (1990)

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Book Covers

Dirk Gently Book Covers

Doctor Who Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Non-Fiction Book Covers

Douglas Adams Books Overview

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

How shall we begin?This is the story of a book called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy not an Earth book, never published on Earth and, until the terrible catastrophe occurred, never seen or even heard of by any Earthman. Nevertheless, a wholly remarkable book. orThis is the story of The Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy, a number one best seller in England, a weekly radio series with millions of fanatic listeners, and soon to be a television spectacle on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. orThis is the story of Arthur Dent, who, secnds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, is plucked off the planet by his friend, Ford Prefect, who has been posing as an out of work actor for the last fifteen years but is really a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy. Together they begin a journey through the galaxy aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy, with the words don t panic written on the front. A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. In their travels they meet: Zaphod Beeblebrox the two headed, three armed ex hippie and totally out to lunch President of the Galaxy Trillian Zaphod s girl friend, formerly Tricia McMillan, whom Arthur once tried to pick up at a cocktail party Marvin a paranoid android, a brilliant but chronically depressed robot Veet Voojagig former graduate student obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the yearsTo find the answers to these burning questions: Why are we born? Why do we die? And why do we spend so much time in between wearing digital watches? read The Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy. But remember…
don t panic, and don t forget to bring a towel.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

‘DOUGLAS ADAMS IS A TERRIFIC SATIRIST.’ The Washington Post Book WorldFacing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons is a curious time to have a craving for tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his curious comrades in arms as they hurtle across space powered by pure improbability and desperately in search of a place to eat. Among Arthur’s motley shipmates are Ford Prefect, a longtime friend and expert contributor to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the three armed, two headed ex president of the galaxy; Tricia McMillan, a fellow Earth refugee who’s gone native her name is Trillian now; and Marvin, the moody android who suffers nothing and no one very gladly. Their destination? The ultimate hot spot for an evening of apocalyptic entertainment and fine dining, where the food literally speaks for itself. Will they make it? The answer: hard to say. But bear in mind that the Hitchhiker’s Guide deleted the term ‘Future Perfect’ from its pages, since it was discovered not to be!’What’s such fun is how amusing the galaxy looks through Adams’ sardonically silly eyes.’ Detroit Free PressFrom the Paperback edition.

Life, the Universe and Everything

‘HYSTERICAL!’
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the white killer robots of Krikkit and their goal of total annihilation.
They are Arthur Dent, a mild mannered space and time traveler, who tries to learn how to fly by throwing himself at the ground and missing; Ford Prefect, his best friend, who decides to go insane to see if he likes it; Slartibartfast, the indomitable vicepresident of the Campaign for Real Time, who travels in a ship powered by irrational behavior; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two headed, three armed ex head honcho of the Universe; and Trillian, the sexy space cadet who is torn between a persistent Thunder God and a very depressed Beeblebrox.
How will it all end? Will it end? Only this stalwart crew knows as they try to avert ‘universal’ Armageddon and save life as we know it and don’t know it!
‘ADAMS IS ONE OF THOSE RARE TREASURES: an author who, one senses, has as much fun writing as one has reading.’
The Arizona Daily Star

From the Paperback edition.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Back on Earth with nothing more to show for his long, strange trip through time and space than a ratty towel and a plastic shopping bag, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed out imagination. But a gift wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription, the mysterious disappearance of Earth’s dolphins, and the discovery of his battered copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy all conspire to give Arthur the sneaking suspicion that something otherworldly is indeed going on…
. God only knows what it all means. And fortunately, He left behind a Final Message of explanation. But since it’s light years away from Earth, on a star surrounded by souvenir booths, finding out what it is will mean hitching a ride to the far reaches of space aboard a UFO with a giant robot. But what else is new?From the Paperback edition.

Mostly Harmless

It’s easy to get disheartened when your planet has been blown up, the woman you love has vanished due to a misunderstanding about space/time, the spaceship you are on crashes on a remote and Bob fearing planet, and all you have to fall back on are a few simple sandwich making skills. However, instead of being disheartened, Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life a bit and immediately all hell breaks loose. Hell takes a number of forms: there s the standard Ford Prefect version, in the shape of an all new edition of The Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy, and a totally unexpected manifestation in the form of a teenage girl who startles Arthur Dent by being his daughter when he didn t even know he had one. Can Arthur save the Earth from total multidimensional obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter, Random, from herself? Of course not. He never works out exactly what is going on. Will you?From the Trade Paperback edition.

And Another Thing…

An Englishman’s continuing search through space and time for a decent cup of tea…
Arthur Dent’s accidental association with that wholly remarkable book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, has not been entirely without incident. Arthur has traveled the length, breadth, and depth of known, and unknown, space. He has stumbled forward and backward through time. He has been blown up, reassembled, cruelly imprisoned, horribly released, and colorfully insulted more than is strictly necessary. And of course Arthur Dent has comprehensively failed to grasp the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Arthur has finally made it home to Earth, but that does not mean he has escaped his fate. Arthur’s chances of getting his hands on a decent cuppa have evaporated rapidly, along with all the world’s oceans. For no sooner has he touched down on the planet Earth than he finds out that it is about to be blown up…
again. And Another Thing…
is the rather unexpected, but very welcome, sixth installment of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. It features a pantheon of unemployed gods, everyone’s favorite renegade Galactic President, a lovestruck green alien, an irritating computer, and at least one very large slab of cheese.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

A Full Cast Dramatization of a Novel By One of Science Fiction’s Most Beloved Authors!

This production is based on Douglas Adams’ novel of the same name, adapted by Mike Stott and directed by the hugely acclaimed Dirk Maggs. This series of six half hour episodes features a stellar cast with Harry Enfield as the eponymous Holistic Detective, Billy Boyd as his client Richard Macduff, Olivia Coleman as his secretary Janice Pearce, Jim Carter as his nemesis DS Gilks, Andrew Sachs as Professor Reg Chronotis, Felicity Montagu as Susan Way, Robert Duncan as her brother Gordon, Toby Longworth as the Electric Monk and Michael Fenton Stevens as Michael Wenton Weakes.

Although this adaptation will maintain the element of comic absurdity and wit that appeals to Hitchhiker fans, it stands in its own right as a comedy for listeners new to Adams. Essentially a science fiction mystery comedy, the series explores everything from quantum physics, Norse Gods and an electric monk, to Coleridge, Schrodinger, fractal theory, computer software & Bach.

Presented fully dramatized on 4 CDs.

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

Harry Enfield exuberantly returns as Dirk Gently, who, fallen on hard times and dressed as a gypsy woman, is using his irritatingly accurate clairvoyant powers to read palms. He is saved when a frantic client turns up with a ludicrous story about being stalked by a goblin waving a contract accompanied by a hairy, green eyed, scythe wielding monster. When Detective Superintendent Gilks decides a headless body found in a sealed room is the result of a particularly irritating suicide, Dirk is plunged into a mystery where the interconnectedness of all things is tested to the limit.

The Salmon of Doubt

On Friday, May 11, 2001, the world mourned the untimely passing of Douglas Adams, beloved creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, dead of a heart attack at age forty nine. Thankfully, in addition to a magnificent literary legacy which includes seven novels and three co authored works of nonfiction Douglas left us something more. The book you are about to enjoy was rescued from his four computers, culled from an archive of chapters from his long awaited novel in progress, as well as his short stories, speeches, articles, interviews, and letters. In a way that none of his previous books could, The Salmon of Doubt provides the full, dazzling, laugh out loud experience of a journey through the galaxy as perceived by Douglas Adams. From a boy s first love letter to his favorite science fiction magazine to the distinction of possessing a nose of heroic proportions; from climbing Kilimanjaro in a rhino costume to explaining why Americans can t make a decent cup of tea; from lyrical tributes to the sublime pleasures found in music by Procol Harum, the Beatles, and Bach to the follies of his hopeless infatuation with technology; from fantastic, fictional forays into the private life of Genghis Khan to extended visits with Dirk Gently and Zaphod Beeblebrox: this is the vista from the elevated perch of one of the tallest, funniest, most brilliant, and most penetrating social critics and thinkers of our time. Welcome to the wonderful mind of Douglas Adams. From the Hardcover edition.

Shada:The Lost Adventure

On 4 CD’s. An unabridged reading of this brand new BBC Books novelisation of Douglas Adams’s never transmitted 1979 TV adventure, which starred Tom Baker as the Doctor and Lalla Ward as Romana. Having been cancelled during production due to a BBC strike, Shada was never shown on television and has never been novelised until now. It is therefore well and truly a ‘lost’ Doctor Who story now found!

Starship Titanic

In this thoroughly satisfying and completely disorienting novel based on a story line by Douglas Adams author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Terry Jones recounts an unforgettable tale of intergalactic travel and mishap. The saga of ‘the ship that cannot possibly go wrong’ sparkles with wit, danger, and confusion that will keep readers guessing which reality they are in and how, on earth, to find their way out again. At the center of the galaxy, a vast, unknown civilization is preparing for an event of epic proportions: the launching of the greatest, most gorgeous, most technologically advanced Starship ever built the Starship Titanic. An earthling would see it as a mixture of the Chrysler Building, the tomb of Tutankhamen, and Venice. But less provincial onlookers would recognize it as the design of Leovinus, the galaxy’s most renowned architect. He is an old man now, and the creation of the Starship Titanic is the pinnacle achievement of his twenty year career. The night before the launch, Leovinus is prowling around the ship having a last little look. With mounting alarm he begins to find things are not right: unfinished workmanship, cybersystems not working correctly, robots colliding with doors. How could this have happened? And how could this have happened without his knowing?Something somewhere is terribly wrong. On the following day, in an artificial event staged for the media, the Starship Titanic will leave its construction dock under autopilot and, a few days later, make its way to the terminal to pick up passengers for its maiden voyage. Although the ship will be deserted during its very first flight, it is nevertheless a major event, watched by all the galaxy’s media. Hugely, magnificently, the fabulous ship eases its way forward from the construction dock, picks up speed, sways a bit, wobbles a bit, veers wildly, and just before it can do massive damage to everything around it, appears to undergo SMEF Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure. In just ten seconds, the whole, stupendous enterprise is over. And our story has just begun. Somehow three earthlings, one Blerontin journalist, a semideranged parrot, and a shipful of disoriented robots must overcome their differences. It’s the only way to save the Starship Titanic ‘The Ship That Cannot Possibly Go Wrong’ from certain destruction and rescue the economy of an entire planet not to mention to survive the latest threat, an attack by a swarm of hostile shipbuilders…
.

The Meaning of Liff (With: John Lloyd)

In life and, indeed, in liff, there are many hundreds of common experiences, feelings, situations and even objects which we all know and recognize, but for which no words exist. This text uses place names to describe some of these meanings.

Last Chance to See (With: Mark Carwardine)

Join Britain’s best-loved wit and raconteur, Stephen Fry, as he follows in his great friend Douglas Adams’ footsteps with zoologist Mark Carwardine, in search of some of the rarest and most threatened animals on Earth. In the 1980s celebrated writer Douglas Adams teamed up with zoologist Mark Carwardine and together they embarked on a groundbreaking expedition, travelling the globe in search of the world’s endangered animals. Twenty years later, comic genius Stephen Fry is returning with Mark to see if the species still exist. A major BBC television series follows the two on six separate journeys which take them to the Amazon basin, East Africa, Madagascar, New Zealand, Indonesia and Mexico to look for a flightless parrot, the Amazonian manatee, man-eating Komodo dragons, man’s closest living relative, the northern white rhino and an animal so bizarre it seems to have been assembled from bits of other creatures. These are not just travels to the four corners of the world, but a journey in time to open our eyes to what humans have done to the Earth in the 20 years since the original Last Chance to See expeditions. It is a unique insight into the disappearing world around us, by one of the most extraordinary, informed, enthusiastic and amusing partnerships.

The Deeper Meaning of Liff (With: John Lloyd)

Does the sensation of Tingrith1 make you yelp? Do you bend sympathetically when you see someone Ahenny2? Can you deal with a Naugatuck3 without causing a Toronto4? Will you suffer from Kettering5 this summer?

Probably. You are almost certainly familiar with all these experiences but just didn t know that there are words for them. Well, in fact, there aren t or rather there weren t, until Douglas Adams and John Lloyd decided to plug these egregious linguistic lacunae6. They quickly realized that just as there are an awful lot of experiences that no one has a name for, so there are an awful lot of names for places you will never need to go to. What a waste. As responsible citizens of a small and crowded world, we must all learn the virtues of recycling7 and put old, worn out but still serviceable names to exciting, vibrant, new uses. This is the book that does that for you: The Deeper Meaning of Liff a whole new solution to the problem of Great Wakering8

1 The feeling of aluminum foil against your fillings.

2 The way people stand when examining other people’s bookshelves.

3 A plastic packet containing shampoo, mustard, etc., which is impossible to open except by biting off
the corners.

4 Generic term for anything that comes out in a gush, despite all your efforts to let it out carefully, e.g., flour into a white sauce, ketchup onto fish, a dog into the yard, and another naughty meaning that we can t put on the cover.

5 The marks left on your bottom and thighs after you ve been sitting sunbathing in a wicker chair.

6 God knows what this means

7 For instance, some of this book was first published in Britain twenty six years ago.

8 Look it up yourself.

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