On Day 3, Mark, Martin (fan and friend of David's), and I were lucky enough to be taken on an extensive tour of Douglas Adams' Islington by David Haddock, past president of the ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha Fan Club. David knows the addresses of most of the flats where Douglas lived and worked during the years between leaving Cambridge and his death. David can tell you about where the author was when collaborating with Graham Chapman, then on the radio series, Hitchhikers, and Dr. Who. David collects memorabilia, costumes and trivia. David is a Hoopy Frood and I'm so grateful for his generous time, and the fact that he walked for several hours on a damaged foot!
David does the walk "Just for fun," and it IS fun! He knows the names of the real life characters who worked with Douglas at various times; and those who contributed to making Hitchhikers Guide happen, even if it was only by letting DNA sleep on their couch.
The image above is the Estate Agent office Hotblack Desiato, which has been in the same location since DNA came to Islington and was inspired to use the name for a Rock Star spending a year deceased for tax purposes. Again, this doesn't 'count' as a place, by my counting, because it is the real world, and even if he needed a flat, Desiato would send a flunky - he wouldn't be caught dead in a place like that.
We saw the Georgian row house still owned by the Adams family, plus front and back of the bank that would not allow DNA to use their parking lot for bulldozer access to his backyard. No pool for the Adams family. Ah, the wacky English architecture.
Since my 42 places are based solidly in the fiction of what Douglas Adams wrote, many of the places that David showed us are just part of this blog's "bonus track." Special bonus features even beyond the promised 42 places in 42 days. And, because of the Neil Gaiman lecture, the bonus track is, in this case, going to come before much of the actual first or second sides of the LP.
We *DID* however get to go and see, in person, one of the places on my list: in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, A. K. Ross is murdered by Michael Wenton Weakes in his house in Noel Road. We went to Noel Road, and although the number of the location of Ross' demise is never mentioned, David said he likes to think the house number was 42.
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