The Bookseller.com

4th July 2009

« Headlines

HC buys tie-in to new Stephen Fry show

19.09.08 Graeme Neill

The tie-in to a Stephen Fry television series, in which he embarks on an expedition to discover some of the rarest creatures on earth, has been bought by HarperCollins for a "very good" six-figure sum.

Myles Archibald, associate publisher, bought world rights from Adrian Sington at DCD Publishing and Doreen Montgomery at Rupert Crew. The illustrated book, Last Chance to See: The Return, will be published in hardback in October 2009 priced £20. The programme will be broadcast on BBC2 at the same time.

The book follows on from the 1980s radio series "Last Chance to See" when Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams teamed up with zoologist Mark Carwardine in search of some of the most threatened animals on earth. Twenty years on, Fry has joined Carwardine to see if the animals have survived. "Mark, Stephen and some of the world's most amazing and, unfortunately, endangered animals make a brilliant combination," said Archibald.

The book will feature their journeys, from Madagascar to Indonesia, as they search for a flightless parrot, a river dolphin, man-eating dragons, and an animal described as being "so bizarre it seems to have been assembled from bits of other animals". Fry and Carwardine will also talk to the campaigners who have tried to save these animals.

Fry enthused: "Having ­travelled with Mark Carwardine to the Amazon I can quite see why Douglas Adams so raved about his experiences. I might say: ‘I went to the Amazon with Mark where I broke my arm, but mended my heart'—but that would be to risk your vomit."

Book HarperCollins Graeme Neill Home Stephen Fry