Eoin Colfer to write sixth Hitchhiker's Guide book

Comic fantasy children's author describes being given the opportunity to continue Douglas Adams's legendary series as 'like suddenly being offered the superpower of your choice'Alison Flood guardian.co.uk,

Eoin Colfer: “It is a gift from the gods". Photograph: Felix Clay

Douglas Adams's increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy is to be extended to six titles, after Adams's widow Jane Belson sanctioned a project which will see children's author Eoin Colfer taking up the story.

And Another Thing… by Colfer, whose involvement with the project was personally requested by Belson, will be published next October by Penguin. No information has yet emerged about the plot of the novel but Hitchhiker fans will be hoping for a resurrection of much-loved characters Arthur Dent, Trillian and Ford Prefect, who were all apparently blown to smithereens at the end of the fifth novel, Mostly Harmless.

Adams himself had plans for a sixth Hitchhiker book, saying in an interview: "People have said, quite rightly, that Mostly Harmless is a very bleak book. And it was a bleak book. I would love to finish Hitchhiker on a slightly more upbeat note, so five seems to be a wrong kind of number, six is a better kind of number."

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I'm upset about this. I mean, I must be to post on the forum about it!

It always bugs me when "new" authors are brought on board to replicate a very unique individual. I feel Sebastian Faulks sullied his reputation when he participated in the PR surrounding the "new" James Bond novel.

That's just a PR blitz that goes into my recycling bin. Sorry.

But messing with The Hitchhikers' Guide?

Stand back ... I need to consult Arthur Dent ... Ford Prefect ... and Zaphod, natch!

Normally I'd agree it's a bad idea, but Mostly Harmless really was a disappointing end to the series. So long as they don't try to pass it off as the work of Adams, why not let him have a go?

Tom