{"product_id":"42-the-wildly-improbably-ideas-of-douglas-adams","title":"Douglas Adams: 42 [2023] hardback","description":"\u003cp\u003e'Douglas's slanted way of looking at reality makes the fuzzy sharp and the improbable probable. In a cock-eyed universe the level gaze is not much use' \u003cstrong\u003eSTEPHEN FRY\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Douglas was something that we don't have a word for yet - a futurologist or an explainer' \u003cstrong\u003eNEIL GAIMAN\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'\u003cem\u003eAll\u003c\/em\u003e your readers have Douglas Adams Circuits in their heads, now: a glowing synaptic lens that has made the whole of space seem like a place as familiar and human as Earth. That makes us approach new tech, and the future, without fear' \u003cstrong\u003eCAITLIN MORAN\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Douglas Adams died in 2001, he left behind 60 boxes full of notebooks, letters, scripts, jokes, speeches and even poems. In \u003cem\u003e42\u003c\/em\u003e, compiled by Douglas's long-time collaborator Kevin Jon Davies, hundreds of these personal artefacts appear in print for the very first time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDouglas was as much a thinker as he was a writer, and his artefacts reveal how his deep fascination with technology led to ideas which were far ahead of their time: a convention speech envisioning the modern smartphone, with all the information in the world living at our fingertips; sheets of notes predicting the advent of electronic books; journal entries from his forays into home computing - it is a matter of legend that Douglas bought the very first Mac in the UK; musings on how the internet would disrupt the CD-Rom industry, among others.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e42\u003c\/em\u003e also features archival material charting Douglas's school days through Cambridge, Footlights, collaborations with Graham Chapman, and early scribbles from the development of \u003cem\u003eDoctor Who\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eHitchhiker's\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eDirk Gently\u003c\/em\u003e. Alongside details of his most celebrated works are projects that never came to fruition, including the pilot for radio programme \u003cem\u003eThey'll Never Play That on the Radio\u003c\/em\u003e and a space-inspired theme park ride.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDouglas's personal papers prove that the greatest ideas come from the fleeting thoughts that collide in our own imagination, and offer a captivating insight into the mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest thinkers and most enduring storytellers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Adams, Douglas \u0026 Davies, Kevin Jon \u0026 Fry, Stephen","offers":[{"title":"Like New","offer_id":52778340712787,"sku":"XE81800182684","price":17.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false},{"title":"New","offer_id":46883039641939,"sku":"9781800182684","price":29.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/adams-douglas-davies-kevin-jon-fry-stephen-douglas-adams-42-2023-hardback-9781800182684-60419970531667.jpg?v=1768325604","url":"https:\/\/theirishbookshop.live\/products\/42-the-wildly-improbably-ideas-of-douglas-adams","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}