Kevin Davies is coming to the shop this evening, to join our 'Happy Birthday Hitchhikers Guide' party. It's 30 years this week since Douglas Adams' masterpiece first hit the bookshelves and
we think this is something to celebrate.
Kevin was an animator on the original TV series, and enjoyed a long and fruitful association with Douglas Adams and The HHGG. Kevin's impressive CV also includes working on shows such as Doctor Who, Blake's 7 and he was also effects animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He also, apparently, won awards for his fjords.
It all kicks off at about 7pm, and pan galactic gargleblasters will be available.
These are my five favourite comic fantasy/SF novels...
So Long And Thanks For All The Fish by Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide's unfortunate hero Arthur Dent returns to Earth, finds love and learns to fly, in this 4th book of the series. I was lucky enough to film behind the scenes in 2005 when Dirk Maggs adapted this one for Radio 4, with Jane Horrocks playing Fenchurch. Marvin the Paranoid Android's re-appearance is an unforgettable scene in a book which still divides the fans.
The Technicolor Time Machine by Harry Harrison - combines my favourite subjects: filmmaking and time travel. A small Hollywood studio in financial trouble needs a hit feature film in 2 weeks flat, or they will close down. With the aid of a time machine they send a crew back in time to make a Viking epic - with real vikings! Gloriously silly. Would make a super feature film itself.
Who's Afraid of Beowolf? by Tom Holt. - More time-travelling vikings, but this bunch awaken after 1,000 years under a burial mound in Scotland. A young female American archeologist from St.Andrews' University is their only friend in this high-tech world and she drives them in a minibus down to London where they wage war on their arch enemy; a dark magician who now runs a multinational corporation from his HQ tower in the City.
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut - Classic anti-war novel with a broken non-chronological storyline, which combines the harsh reality of the bombing of Dresden with the heroes' fantasy life alongside the starlet of his dreams on a distant planet.
Time After Time by Karl Alexander - Don't be put off by the nutty sounding premise... H.G. Wells uses a time machine like the one in his famous story to pursue a fugitive Jack the Ripper to San Fransisco in 1979, where they duel for the life of an independent career woman Amy, with whom Herbert has fallen deeply in love. A standout moment was this famous Victorian gentleman, who propounded the notion of free love, being rather taken aback when modern Amy starts hitting on him. This was also a super little film in 1979 directed by Nicolas Meyer, who later wrote and/or directed the best of the early Star Trek movies.
We will also be selling signed limited edition copies of 'And Another Thing', the sixth book in the Hitchikers Trilogy, which has been written by the charmingly talented and amusing Eoin Colfer. Oh yes indeed.
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