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Welcome to the home of
The *REAL* Hitch-Hiker's Guide
to the Galaxy
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What's the Guide?
The RealHHG is a huge computerised database of
"mostly harmless"
articles, mostly contributed by fans, which appears from time to time at
Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions to entertain the con-goers and raise
money for charity in the process. It takes its name and some of its entries from
the works of the late Douglas Adams, but
has grown to include a host of articles contributed by its readers, on a
range of topics including life, the HHG series, Terry Pratchett's
Discworld, Star Trek, Red Dwarf, the Universe, Doctor Who and
everything. Even delicious Spam
gets a mention. If you feel inspired by your visit to our site, why not
contribute an article? The Guide welcomes new
entries and new Guide Researchers, whether genuinely weird or only faking it.
We have put on display here quite a number of sample Guide
entries, but these are just a taster - the Guide itself contains many times
that number. There is only one way to see the whole thing, and that is to attend
a convention where the Guide is appearing. Check the Guide
Diary to see where it's been and where it will turn up next.
Of course you could always organise your own con and invite the Guide! We are
always pleased to receive invitations to appear at events -- if you are organizing
(or disorganizing) any kind of show or convention, please
click here for details of how to get in touch with
the Editor, the wholly remarkable Dave Hodges.
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What's New?
This is not quite the most neglected site on the Web, but after several years
of constant love and attention it fell into a sort of genteel decay. I didn't
get bored with updating it, but Real Life became a bit too busy for me to keep
up.
I'm not saying I'll restore it to its former glory overnight, but a lick of
new paint here and there wouldn't come amiss, would it.
OK you can watch this space but without holding your breath...
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Speaking of Dave, it's time to say a few words about him... well, one word, really...
AAAARGH!
Dave is well-known around the SF/Fantasy convention world and also features as
a character, Hodgesaargh!, in the Discworld books
of Terry Pratchett, based on his real-life relationship with an evil-
tempered buzzard named Lady Jane. In this guise he has been immortalised by a
Hodgesaargh! figurine in the range of Discworld miniatures produced by
Clarecraft. He has written and published
a suitably short Discworld-ish book with a foreword by Terry Pratchett,
entitled "The Arts of Falconrie and Hawking, A Begginners Guide".
This is now in its third edition, and has been translated or transcribed into
a bewildering variety of languages including Orang-Utan. The new edition with
illustrations by Paul Kidby is now available at the very reasonable price of
UK£4.00, half of which goes to Terry's favourite charity, the Orang
Foundation (Click for details).
Still on the subject of books, we became so baffled and confused trying to find
our favourite books in the mazy backwaters of the online bookshop Amazon
that in the end we searched and catalogued all we could find - books, films, audio,
games - on Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Babylon 5, the Clangers etc. and put it
all into some kind of sensible order[1] - click
here or on the [Books] links to see the results. The
suitably grateful among you will follow the links to Amazon or sendit.com from our
site and buy something, thus earning us a pat on the head for sending you there.
We have also included a page of links to some other
interesting and relevant Web sites we've come across. If you have a favourite
we've missed out, do tell us. You can also search the site for key words, and we
have a live news feed keyed on science fiction interest.
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