Wish You Were Here: The Official
Biography of Douglas Adams by Nick
Webb
A Widely Shared Sentiment
It all started when Douglas Adams demolished planet Earth in order to
make way for an intergalactic expressway–and then invited everyone to
thumb a ride on a comical cosmic road trip with the likes of Arthur Dent,
Ford Prefect, and the other daft denizens of deep space immortalized in
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Adams made the universe a much
funnier place to inhabit and forever changed the way we think about
towels, extraterrestrial poetry, and especially the number 42. And then, too
soon, he was gone.
Just who was this impossibly tall Englishman who wedded science fiction
and absurdist humor to create the multimillion-selling five-book “trilogy”

that became a cult phenomenon read round the world? Even if you’ve
dined in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, you’ve been exposed
to only a portion of the offbeat, endearing, and irresistible Adams mystique.
Have you met the only official unofficial member of Monty Python’s Flying
Circus? The very first person to purchase a Macintosh computer? The first
(and thus far only) author to play a guitar solo onstage with Pink Floyd?
Adams was also the writer so notorious for missing deadlines that he had
to be held captive in a hotel room under the watchful eye of his editor; the
creator of the epic computer game Starship Titanic; and a globetrotting
wildlife crusader.
A longtime friend of the author, Nick Webb reveals many quirks and
contradictions: Adams as the high-tech-gadget junkie and lavish gift
giver . . .irrepressible ham and painfully timid soul . . . gregarious
conversationalist and brooding depressive . . . brilliant intellect and prickly
egotist. Into the brief span of forty-nine years, Douglas Adams exuberantly
crammed more lives than the most resilient cat–while still finding time and
energy to pursue whatever side projects captivated his ever-inquisitive
mind.
By turns touching, tongue-in-cheek, and not at all timid about telling the
warts-and-all truth, Wish You Were Here is summation as celebration– a
look back at a life well worth the vicarious reliving, and studded with
anecdote, droll comic incident, and heartfelt insight as its subject’s own
unforgettable tales of cosmic wanderlust. For the countless fans of
Douglas Adams and his unique and winsome world, here is a wonderful
postcard: to be read, reread, and treasured for the memories it bears.
From the Hardcover edition.
Personal Review: Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography
of Douglas Adams by Nick Webb
It's a rare treat to find a book where every paragraph is a delight to read.
And that's not counting the ones by Douglas Adams himself. "Wish You
Were Here" is a testimony to a giant of a man - outsized in more ways than
one. At over 196 centimetres, Adams was an intimidating figure. It's even
more intimidating to encounter the breadth of his mentality. As Webb
explains, Adams developed an incipient interest in science, became a
proficient [if spendthrift] guitarist and learned just how final extinction is.
He was a man attracted to new ideas, even to the extent of creating an
Internet company that went beyond just being another dot.com. His

personal interests were equally wide and intense. Given how soon after
Adams' death this book was published, it's remarkably complete and
sensitive to the survivors.
If he'd done nothing but HHGG, Adams would be fondly remembered. As
Webb notes often, Adams was too inventive and broad-minded to be
limited to a single theme. Still, when you start off by considering the
universe, you can only scale downward. Webb, who has a fine humorous
style of his own, follows the life and tribulations of Adams with careful
attention. He understands, as a flexible publisher should, that the craft of
writing and production schedules are an uneasy liaison. The legends of
Adams ability to procrastinate are common, but Webb points out that
Adams' desire for perfection in his craft was at least as strong as his
receptivity to diversion. His friends were nearly as important as his writing,
and a long, liquidy lunch was both pleasurable and intellectually
stimulating. Webb's own discussions with his subject were as often about
deep philosophical questions as about the business of publishing.
The author demonstrates how fervently Adams sought to have HHGG
transposed into film. It's almost disappointing to note that no British firm
was even approached to undertake the task. Given that the BBC-TV
production was such a success, even though Adams himself felt
disappointed in it, filming it there might have boosted the industry in the
UK. Hollywood's special effects seemed to hold sway, even though BBC-
TV's production was done with "old-fashioned" transparencies. That the
film was made, even to mixed reviews, is one of the deep and tragic
ironies of this account. Adams was unwilling or unable to perceive the
vagaries of dealing with the Hollywood moguls. He wasn't a screenwriter -
his first draft proved far too lengthy - and making the transition proved
endlessly difficult.
Adams' legacy is enduring, as Webb notes in his conclusion. Answer any
question with "42" and you will almost certainly be granted a smile of
recognition. The conversation will turn to favourite scenes or characters.
Hitchhiker's [and the placement of the inverted comma remains a subject
of discussion] was a phenomenon. Such things don't easily fade away.
Webb is to be congratulated for helping perpetrate the marvel of Adams,
even if the image is a bit smudged. The author makes a sincere effort to
trace the origins of his subject's thinking, but much of that remains
anonymous. That Richard Dawkins was a strong influence is now a given,
but other sources likely lie in Adams own reading regimen. It wasn't
Dawkins who put Adams on to astrophysics, one assumes. Little
shortcomings of this sort don't detract from the immense value of this work.
Webb's skills as an author, and one with such affinity for his subject more
than overcome whatever might be lacking. It's a tribute to Adams, his
circle of friends and to all us readers alike. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa,
Canada]
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