Here is a fun romp in Douglas Adams‘ backyard in London where his imagination sprung fruit and blossomed throughout the world. Herb Lester Associates presents: A Hitchhiker’s Guide to… Douglas Adam’s London is a unique way to explore the creative process of one of the greatest 20th-century imaginative writers through a map.
In this guide, we chart 42 locations from the life and work of Douglas Adams. Although best known as the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy “trilogy” of five books, in which much of the action happens several hyperspace jumps from the debris of the earth, his work is peppered with London locations, and the city was his home for decades.
From Shepherds Bush to Highgate, we tour streets that Adams knew and cared about, unhappily noting the rampant development of Islington – “Grim concrete monoliths, eyeing the new spaces in Upper Street where they hoped to spawn their horrid progeny” – and the timeless joy of Hyde Park – “Hyde Park is stunning. Everything about it is stunning except for the rubbish on Monday mornings.”
“One’s first thoughts of places included in a galactic travel guide don’t include the north London estate agents and residential streets. But places he (Adams) knew are used throughout his books,” Olins said. “In charting all of that, I hope we bring to life the world Adams inhabited, and in doing so perhaps bring readers closer to a writer they admire.”
Fun Fact: A passionate technophile, Adams often said that he was the first person in the United Kingdom to buy a Macintosh computer.