On 11 March 2021, Save the Rhino International will host The Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture.
Presented by 15-time Tony Award nominee Arvind Ethan David, Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE and Samuel Barnett and Hannah Marks, stars of Netflix’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, the event celebrates the conservation legacy – and birthday – of renowned sci-fi author Douglas Adams.
20 years since Douglas’ death the commemorative event will bring together many of his loyal fans and raise vital funds for rhino conservation.
Taking place digitally the event will include a lecture from neurologist and long-standing friend of Douglas, Baroness Greenfield CBE. Arvind Ethan David, who is responsible for bringing Adams’ character Dirk Gently to life on stage and screen, will also share memories about working with him and how his rhino conservation legacy continues today.
Adams was a founding patron of Save the Rhino. He was inspired to get involved in rhino conservation whilst making Last Chance to See, a 1989 BBC radio documentary series and its accompanying book, written and presented by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine.
In the series, Adams and Carwardine travel to various locations in the hope of encountering species on the brink of extinction, including the now functionally extinct Northern white rhino. The book was published in 1990 and in 2009, Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine recreated it for the BBC.
“If Douglas were alive today, I think he’d be both depressed and excited about what’s happened in rhino conservation during the last two decades. The Northern white rhinos that he and Mark Carwardine went to see in Garamba National Park are down to just two surviving females; the Western black rhino was declared extinct in 2011.
“On the other hand, I reckon he’d be fascinated by the ways that new technology and the internet have totally transformed rhino conservation. I’m really pleased that, once again, the Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture will bring people together to explore Douglas’s interests, mixing conservation, science and humour, and – for a couple of hours – take us out of our own patches into new territories. We may not be able to travel, but our minds most definitely can.” – Save the Rhino International CEO, Cathy Dean
The Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture – endorsed by Douglas Adams’ estate and publishing house – takes place on Thursday 11 March 2021 at 19:00 GMT. Tickets are now on sale exclusively from StellarTickets.com.
To join the event: https://www.savetherhino.org/get-involved/events/douglas-adams-memorial-lecture/
