We apologise for the inconvenience.

I’ll let you find out the significance of these words by reading almost to the end of this fourth Book in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series.

I read this book many years ago and I found it funnier then than I do know. Something has changed and it’s not the book, so it must be me. Has my sense of humour changed or have I read many more books since then which are similar to this one, and so the genre is no longer as interesting?

Anyway, a synopsis of the plot is that Arthur Dent returns to Earth, finds it wasn’t destroyed by the Vogons, learns all the dolphins have gone (the title is their parting message) and meets and falls for a girl called Fenchurch (Fenny). Ultimately his desire to return to the stars with Fenny becomes too strong. Before leaving, Arthur meets the Rain God, Rob McKenna, Wonko the Sane and is reunited with Ford Prefect.

At the end of the book, Arthur and Fenny meet the marvellous character of Marvin the Paranoid Android, who is still as funny as ever he was.