NB : "Last chance to see" is quite an ufo in dna career. Even if we recognise his style and humour, it shows a very mature author, at ease with non fiction, and shows his deep interest for zoology. He wanted to do more serious work, he wanted to make a book about atheism too, which was another subject of reflection he was deeply fond of. He seemed to have always this dichotomy about intellectual and popular subjects. Dirk Gently is more philosophical and complex than H2G2.

MJS : LCTS is certainly Douglas' best book. All his other books have brilliant parts and some parts that aren't so brilliant. But LCTS is perfect. It's easy to read, it's very entertaining, it's very informative, and it says something serious. And nobody bought it. Well, it sold okay, but not even as well as The Meaning of Liff. It was Douglas' favourite book, and everyone I have interviewed has said it was their favourite Adams book. But the publishers wanted him to write novels.

I don't think he ever seriously considered a book on atheism - it was just one of his many, many ideas. Early work by Douglas Adams is certainly more concerned with just Being Funny than the later work, when he was also keen to make people think.

NB : Douglas Adams was not confident at all with himself and with his work. He was a modest man, a perfectionist who suffered from the writer's block. And it seemed to become worse with the years. The salmon of doubt was a book he begun ten years ago, and was in turn a dirk gently book, a h2g2 book and a new book on its own. How can we explain that?

MJS : I don't think Douglas had writer's block. Writer's block means that you can't think what to write - you stare at the page (or the computer screen) and you have no ideas in your head. Douglas' head was always full of ideas - too many ideas. He certainly could think of things to write but he didn't want to write. He lacked the self-discipline to sit down and write a book. You cannot cure somebody of writer's block by locking them in a hotel room for two weeks! But you can give them discipline that way. (I don't think Salmon of Doubt would ever have been published in Douglas had lived.)

NB : Which writers were the greatest influence for him? He's been compared with PG Wodehouse, Lewis Caroll and Vonnegut. He liked very much PG Wodehouse. Which similarities do you find between them?

MJS : PG Wodehouse is very, very English. So are AA Milne and Kenneth Graham, who I mentioned above. And PG Wodehouse loved words. He loved to find exactly the right word. A classic line from Wodehouse is: "He twiddled a thoughtful steering wheel". Any other writer would have said, "He twiddled the steering wheel thoughtfully." This probably won't make any sense in French! Vonnegut also influenced Douglas and so did Robert Sheckley, but he didn't like any other SF writers. Most of his other influences were from comedy, like Monty Python.