It was ok. This might be something of a heresy but I found it overly pretentious. The conceit of the story was quite good, but it was overly long for what it was, and a bit too much of it's time. I mean it's not like Adams could have KNOWN about the demise of British Rail or the restoration of St Pancras or handheld TVs never really catching on or all the other myriad little things snot this book that anchor it so firmly to the 80s... 
 I suspect had I read this at the same time as I read the Hitchhiker books, when I was a teenager, then this would have been as refreshing and cool as them, and I could reread it now with a glow of nostalgia. But reading it 25 years too late, too old, and too cynical doesn't help it. 
 Sorry Douglas.