Wish You Were Here

As readers of this blog will know, Douglas Adams was both one of my literary heroes, and a friend of the family.  My Dad was Douglas’ publisher back when the earth was young, and growing up I used to be rather intimidated by this man, who I admired hugely, coming round for dinner of a weekend.  My Dad shared a lot of things in common with Douglas Adams, not least the burden of being a very tall, rather overweight gentleman of a certain portly disposition, and wrote the official biography of him after his death.  This year would have been Douglas’ 60th birthday, and in honour of this a number of events are happening, including an ‘online birthday’ as an appropriate celebration for a man who’s passions were always science, technology and gadgets, and for whom really, the smartphone era couldn’t happen soon enough.  And in the spirit of this, I throw out my small contribution – happy 60th birthday, Douglas Adams!