Nick Webb, Douglas Adam's first publisher and biographer, dies

Nick Webb (picture thanks to Kevin Davies)

Nick Webb just passed away the 10 or 11th April 2012. He first met Douglas Adams in 1978 and managed to sign a book deal with Douglas Adams for Pan Books shortly after the radio series' huge success (the BBC declined to sign a book version of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy because radio adaptations didn't sell !).

Even if professionally it was his last contact with Douglas (he left Pan Books shortly after he signed Douglas), they remained very good friends.

In 2003, he published Douglas Adams' authorized biography "Wish you were here".

I personally met  Nick Webb in person in 2004 on the filming of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. He offered me twice hospitality when I came in London, and had the luck to have great breakfasts with him. He was one on a kindest man I ever met. I saw him for the last time a few weeks ago during  Douglas' Virtual 60th.

I interviewed Nick Webb in 2003, when his autobiography was published :
http://douglasadams.eu/en_bonus_interview_webb.php

He was a successful publisher, but also the author of The Dictionary of Bullshit (2006) and The Dictionary of Political Bullshit (2010).