- An update from Kevin Jon Davies -

Sorry for the seeming radio silence, but now the autumnal/fall season has arrived in the UK, I thought I’d better give a progress report on the book.

A lot of time I would have otherwise spent by now in Douglas Adams’ archives has been lost due to Covid restrictions. The special collections library where they are kept at St. John’s Cambridge has been closed all summer to everyone except their live-in students. As a part-time lecturer on a film course at another University, I’ve seen what COVID restrictions have meant to young people, so although disappointed I understood completely. I was hotly anticipating getting stuck in, when I was taken ill myself, so I’ve been somewhat further delayed.

However, I’ve spent the last few months fully researching the material I gathered on my previous visits in 2016 and 2018. Over the coming weeks I’ll be sharing some titbits from the archive to further whet your appetite.

This beautiful illustration of the Hitchhiker’s Guide in the leaves was taken about this time last year by photographer Andy Hollingworth. He had wanted to visit some of Douglas’ Islington haunts for his own project and this photo was taken in the street outside Douglas’ former home! The prop depicted is an exact duplicate of, and was struck from the same mould as, the one in the TV series. It was a present made for me and was used in my 1993 BBC documentary “The Making of The Hitchhiker’s Guide…” (originally a stand-alone VHS release and now an extra on the DVDs and Blu-Ray).

The next picture shows me lining up a visual effects shot with a very patient Simon Jones as Arthur Dent and Mike Cule as the Vogon Guard.

For comparison, here’s a shot (by Stephen Mansfield) of the actual original BBC prop, with its “Don’t Panic” sleeve, on display at “Slartibartday” which was a fan convention I co-organised in 1981 (I’ve been at this Hitchhiker lark for a very long while!).


More goodies soon…!
KJD