I was given the first book of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy as a birthday present. I didn't know what it was, I hadn't heard the radio series, and I read it in about two hours which was probably the fastest I'd ever read a book because from the first page I just couldn't stop and I loved it, it was absolutely wonderful. It was given to me by an uncle of mine and I'm eternally grateful to him for introducing me to the whole thing.

I never actually saw Douglas Adams in action at a convention or anything like that - but I've seen a tape of him telling an anecdote at some convention or other about how he and Ken Grieve, the television director, had been to Paris to film City of Death and decided to go off for a little drink afterwards and it turned into the most incredible anecdote of bacchanalian excess which involved catching aeroplanes to get to another pub that was still open and things like that.

Not only was he a great story teller on the page but he was a fabulous raconteur and wit in person as well and that's something I remember very, very fondly.