Paul Neil Milne Johnstone
From Freepedia
Paul Neil Milne Johnstone was the person originally credited in the original radio play version of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with being "the very worst" poet in the universe. The name given was that of a real person, who apparently was not amused, and complained. The recorded name was deliberately distorted for the LP adapation of the radio series and subsequently changed to "Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Wasp Villas, Greenbridge, Essex, England" in all later versions.
The poem to which Douglas Adams indirectly referred in the original radio series (and directly referred in the television series) can be viewed here.
The worst poem in the universe
The dead swans lay in the stagnant pool. They lay. They rotted. They turned Around occassionally. Bits of flesh dropped off them from Time to time. And sank into the pool's mire. They also smelt a great deal.
According to M.J. Simpson who wrote a biography of Adams, David Thomas (a mutual friend of Adams and Johnstone) once said "Although Paul was miffed by Douglas' epithet he was also amused. It was the inclusion of his then address (Beehive Court, Redbridge) in the first edition that annoyed him."
Johnstone attended Brentwood School, Essex with Adams, and received an award for English the same year as him. He later won a scholarship to study at Cambridge University, parallelling Adams' accomplishments again. Johnstone later went on to achieve moderate success in the poetry world as an editor and festival organizer.
Johnstone passed away in April, 2004 of pancreatic failure. He outlived Adams by a little under three years.
Links
More on Johnstone and the poem - http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1461457
