How shall we begin? This is the story of a book called The Hitchhiker"s Guide to the Galaxy - not an Earth book, never published on Earth and, until the terrible catastrophe occurred, never seen or even heard of by any Earthman. Nevertheless, a wholly remarkable book. or This is the story of The Hitchhiker"s Guide to the Galaxy, a number-one best seller in England, a weekly radio series with millions of fanatic listeners, and soon to be a television spectacle on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. or This is the story of Arthur Dent, who, seconds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, is plucked off the planet by his friend, Ford Prefect, who has been posing as an out-of-work actor for the last fifteen years but is really a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker"s Guide to the Galaxy. Together they begin a journey through the galaxy aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker"s Guide to the Galaxy, with the words don"t panic...