The Salmon of Doubt - Stephen Fry, Stephen Fry, Douglas Adams

MY MY IT'S AMERICAN FRY

Advantages: Great compliment to the TV series, full of information
Disadvantages: Very heavy book so not ideal to take stateside with you

I?m a big fan of Stephen Fry; if I?m honest I would happily listen to him read through a shopping list such are his comforting dulcet tones. I also have a strong desire to visit America ? real America that is, not a few days in Disney land Florida or a quick shopping trip to New York. So when I heard that Fry and America were combining to produce a BBC series in which he gets stuck into the real underbelly of the USA I couldn?t have been more pleased. True to form the series delivered on its promises, Fry visited each and every state of America by way of a London taxi, specially hired for the occasion. Alas, as is common with most television programs the memory fades to be replaced with other, newer experiences. Imagine my delight then, when I received the hard back book to accompany the series as a present not so long ago. Now I had ...

tractor-boy 04.06.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Stephen Fry in America - Stephen Fry

Adams misses his final deadline.

Advantages: A laugh-out-loud funny collection of pieces by the inimitiable Douglas Adams
Disadvantages: You'll hate not knowing how the story ends!

an almost CV-like format. Neither of these is particularly interesting, although they do offer a clear overview, which is their intended aim. Personally I found the quotations from Adams most interesting as they demonstrated his usual good humoured approach to life: he likened trying to get his film made to "trying to grill a steak by having a succession of people coming into the room and breathing on it". The editor's note and prologue are followed by a foreword (I know, I know, you're wondering when the book begins,) written by Stephen Fry who laments Adams' passing and suggests that this collection will help to 'put off the full melancholy of his sudden departure'. This is moving and it is interesting to get a more personal viewpoint than is otherwise offered, but it's definitely time to get into the true purpose of the book: Adams ...

brokenangelkisses 06.01.2004 (18.01.2009) · Read full review
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Review of The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams

The Salmon of Doubt - sad, amusing, exasperating and delightful

Advantages: Displays the sort of quirky brilliance that made Douglas Adams famous.
Disadvantages: Melancholy-inducing - this is the last chance to read anything new by Douglas Adams.

of the Artemis Fowl stories) has been commissioned to write a sixth Hitch Hiker novel, possibly using some of the material Adams had been working on. It might be that Colfer will also go on to write a third Dirk Gently book and carry it off very well indeed - in this unpredictable universe of ours, who knows? But it won?t be the novel Douglas Adams would have written. For me, he was one of those people who left the world a better place, because he wrote stories that were funny, intelligent, brimming with ideas and that somehow made you feel happier for having read or listened to them. I have been a fan of Douglas Adams from that day in 1978 when I happened to hear the very first radio broadcast of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy; over thirty years later, reading The Salmon of Doubt made me feel sad, amused, exasperated and delighted ...

AlexCull 06.04.2009 (07.04.2009) · Read full review
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Review of The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams