As the pub­lic­ation date nears for Eoin Colfer’s con­tinu­ation novel, the Guardian surveys the place of the ori­ginal Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (which is to say, the radio series, novels and TV series com­bined) in the British psyche. “The Hitchhiker stories make up a sort of folk-art depiction, like on a tribal carpet, of the late-1970s English middle-class cosmic order,” says Jenny Turner.