My understanding is that the books were written before the radio series.

Adams' original premise was a sci-fi anthology called "The Ends Of The Earth," in which each episode would revolve around the earth getting destroyed by some means. He only got around to plotting the first episode, in which "Aleric Dent" discovers that his best friend is a field researcher for the Guide.

(This was also Adams coming back to the "there should be a Hitchhiker's Guide not just to Europe, but the whole Galaxy!" idea he allegedly had while lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck.)

The other episodes were never written, AFAIK, and instead the Guide idea was expanded into a series, written and endlessly rewritten by Adams and John Lloyd. Adams wanted the recordings to have the sonic density of Star Wars or a Pink Floyd album, and episodes often weren't delivered until minutes before broadcast.

The first series picked up listeners with each new episode, so that by the time the first six episodes were rebroadcast, the show was a bona fide cult hit.

A deal was quickly made for two books, which Adams decided to write on his own, leading to a long rift between him and Lloyd. Adams, a notorious procrastinator when it came to writing, was taking so long to get the book out that eventually the publishers demanded that he simply tack on an ending to what he had, which explains the somewhat truncated nature of the first book.

for confirmation, check out either Don't Panic www.amazon.com/exec/obido...180-9018404 or Hitchhiker www.amazon.com/exec/obido...180-9018404 the biography I read of Adams by M.J Simpson. It's <i>very very</i> detailed, with chapters about his early life, how he got into theatre and radio. Adams was friends, sort of, with John Cleese and actually got to write a few Python sketches.

A bit I enjoyed, kind of off topic, was that Neil Gaiman wrote Don't Panic and has a forward in Hitchhiker, and Simpson wrote Hitchhiker and has a forward in Don't Panic... and both were being written at the same time. begs the question... why not one book?

There was also a weird, mid-eighties, album release that was a sort of re-recording of the radio stuff from those scripts, but not actually the originals. I think they used the Ford from the TV series as a replacement for the original radio actor.

The BBC Shop has a page for Adams material at www.bbcshop.com/bin/venda

They carry the original radio series (the "Primary" and "Secondary" phases) as both audio and MP3 cds, as well as the new "Tertiary Phase." Presumably they will also carry the upcoming Quandary and Quintessential phases. They also have DNA@BBC, an MP3 collection of non-HHG work he did at and for the Beeb, such as early radio sketches, some Doctor Who work (including a bit from the legendary, unfinished "Shada"), and vast wodges of the brilliant "Last Chance To See."