Douglas Adams's latest space extravaganza this time starts life as a novel [Life, the Universe and Everything]. The first two novels of the series—The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe—were first born as a radio series….

The major characters of the first books return—the vulnerable, bemused Dent; the wise-cracking, know-all Ford Prefect; the cool, half-comatose Zaphod and the manic depressive robot Marvin. Although the plot flags a little here and there much of the writing is dazzling and there are episodes of comic genius, in particular the confrontation between the time-travelling Dent (still in his original dressing gown) and the enraged being whom Dent has inadvertently killed in each of his reincarnations—as a fly, a rabbit, a bowl of petunias, even a human being.

But the early scene at Lord's cricket ground is the finest. Like...