It's been many years since I first heard the radio broadcast of this book. As a result of my initial experience with it, the characters' voices are fully-formed in my head, even when reading a book rather than listening. Naturally, this transcends the first volume, but I shall stick hereto for the benefit of my review.

It's also the case that, what I found amusing in my teens, now seems a little warn and overdone. Adams' repetition of certain phrases or the re-going over of certain points, for instance.

Two scenes vividly stood out for me during this reread: Eddie, singing his way to doom, was a scene from the radio drama which I found funny then and almost managed to replay in my head during this read. I love it dearly and it made me chortle to myself whilst washing a wine glass. The second one was Ford turning into a penguin, which is also linked to the drama (the vocal on that also amused me greatly).

Of course, a lot of my retrospection is linked to the radio. As a stand alone novel, the ending is poor and the characters may seem shallow without the radiophonic or televisual background flushing out their personalities. Still, I enjoyed rereading it and it opens the way to what is indisputably a treasured series.