Douglas Adams Biography

Douglas Adams was an English writer best known for the science fiction series ‘The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy’. The series which originated as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a phenomenally successful book series also spawned a television series, stage plays and video games. Intelligent and creative from an early age, he started writing when he was in school. He received much encouragement from his teacher Frank Halford who greatly appreciated the boy’s writing skills. He started writing for his school magazine and had a short story of his published nationally in the boys' comic, ‘The Eagle’ when he was 12. Blessed with a quirky sense of humor, he focused more on comical writing, a genre that would make him famous in the years to come. A good student, he was awarded a scholarship in English at St John's College, Cambridge. He also loved acting, but could not perform on stage because of his clumsiness. So he took to writing comedy sketches for the performing arts society as a college student. Following his graduation he started writing for the radio, and came up with the concept of ‘The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy’ as a science-fiction comedy radio series. His other well-known works include ‘Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency’ and ‘The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul’.