It has taken amateur numerological sleuth and genuine Douglas Adams fan Peter Gill over ten years to marshal his evidence, and finally he can reveal the truth. 42 really is the amazingly accurate answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything! For Douglas Adams fans and lovers of QI alike, this is the perfect tongue-in-cheek compendium of remarkable facts. Roaming far and wide ? from rock music to Eastern architecture, transatlantic rowing records to Adolf Hitler, cricket to Nijinsky ? this is the ultimate collection of esoteric and confounding information. No stone has been unturned. To get to the very heart of the secret of 42, Gill has scoured the world for information. He has visited Ken Walsh, the author of the famous volume The Hitchhiker?s Guide to Europe, which served as the setting-off point for Adams?s great adventure, and discovered a fascinating new nugget. He has counted, added, multiplied and divided. The 42 hours which it took the Beatles to record Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da pales into insignificance beside his research efforts. Although, unlike Sir Paul McCartney, who waited 42 years after recording that song to actually perform it live, Peter Gill is ready now to share his arcane secrets with the world! AUTHOR: Peter Gill was born in England and educated in Longridge, Blackburn and Reading ? From where he went to Oxford but left early when he realized there wasn?t quite enough of interest to sustain a full weekend. On the occasions when work has troubled his day he has conveyed the impression of being a government research scientist, radio journalist, college lecturer, something in IT, PR drone, and itinerant sheep shearer. He now lives in a Shropshire home, accompanied by one wife, up to four daughters, a cat, the F dog, five chickens and six goldfish. He has promised never, ever, to try and keep stick insects again. His time is largely divided between the kitchen and a room on the top floor with a handy bolt on the outside. This is his first book if you?re not counting the pamphlet on electric fencing.