Thirty years after The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was introduced to the world, The Guardian asks if it stands the test of time. My first memory of this whole thing was listening to the radio show on BBC Radio 4. Radio 4 was always on in our household. The shipping news, Just A Minute, the Today Programme, the Food Programme, Charlotte Green and all those other newsreaders, and Letter from America – we listened to them all.

The story’s author, Douglas Adams, was, apparently, tall and dark and awkward-looking too. Born in Cambridge in 1952 – he was proud of his initials, DNA – he studied English at Cambridge University because he wanted to be in Footlights, then found himself, by the late 1970s, a comedy sketchwriter in need of an idea. Suddenly, he remembered a drunken reverie he’d had, staring at the stars one evening, while hitchhiking round Europe. The first Radio 4 series led quickly to an LP, a stage version, a second Radio 4 series, a BBC television sitcom. The first novel led, over the next 12 years, to four sequels – you can buy them packaged together, as “a trilogy in five parts”.