Its 1984 and the author of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, is in trouble. Famously bad with deadlines, Adams has been locked away in a London hotel room by his publisher to finish his new book which is already months late. But with a whole universe of distractions " including a talking plastic duck that seems to know a worrying amount about him " completing the book seems infinitely improbable 'What fun! Excellent writing, very much in Douglass vein, and very convincingly reconstructing his thought processes' (Simon Jones).