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  • Published: 25 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9781409052357
  • Imprint: Preface Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 480
Categories:

The Frood

The Authorised and Very Official History of Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy




"Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.) Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

As a wise ape once observed, space is big – vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly so. However, if you look too closely at space, it becomes nothing but lumps of rock and sundry gases. Sometimes it's necessary to take a step back, and let a few billion years go by, before any of the true wonder and scope of the cosmos becomes apparent.

Similarly, the late 20th century author, humorist and thinker Douglas Adams was big – vastly, hugely and thoroughly mind-bogglingly so, both in physical terms, and as a writer who has touched millions of readers, firing up millions of cerebellums all over planet Earth, for over 35 years – and for nearly half of that time, he hasn't even been alive.

It would be ridiculous to pretend that Douglas Adams's life and work has gone unexamined since his dismayingly early death at 49 but throughout the decade since the last book to tackle the subject, the universes Adams created have continued to develop, to beguile and expand minds, and will undoubtedly do so for generations to come.

An all-new approach to the most celebrated creation of Douglas Adams is therefore most welcome, and The Frood tells the story of Adams's explosive but agonizingly constructed fictional universe, from his initial inspirations to the posthumous sequel(s) and adaptations, bringing together a thousand tales of life as part of the British Comedy movements of the late 70s and 80s along the way. With the benefit of hindsight and much time passed, friends and colleagues have been interviewed for a fresh take on the man and his works.

  • Published: 25 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9781409052357
  • Imprint: Preface Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 480
Categories:

About the author

Jem Roberts

Jem Roberts was made in Ludlow, Shropshire in 1978. His first published magazine work came at the age of 13, reviewing Nintendo games, and he has subsequently written for DVD Review, X-Net, Total Advance, Xbox World, SFX, and has no shame in having launched Pokémon World. His work for the Peter Cook fanzine Publish & Bedazzled and Kettering - The Magazine of Elderly British Comedy led to an invitation to chronicle the immense legacy of 'I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue', which will be his first book. He lives in Bath, where he runs the comedy sketch troupe The Unrelated Family, and plays the ukulele very badly.

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Praise for The Frood

Hitchhikers is one of the most amazing pieces of literature created in modern times… His biographer Jem Roberts puts it all into context

The Sun

Jem manages to write about popular cultural institutions with knowledge and affection

Stephen Fry

Jem, you're very charming, it's a pleasure to go on about it

Barry Cryer

Roberts has done some meticulous work here and clearly cares for his subject’5*

Daily Sport

Roberts’s lively conversational prose never tries to ape Adams’s own style, but tells the story of his life in an accessible, compelling flow… this is a thoroughly absorbing read.

SFX magazine