h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A409015

I feel that this could be an important entry for the guide, as there is no mention of this town anywhere in the edited guide, and as such the 200,000 people who live there are unrepresented in this worthy tome. It may also serve to warn people away from the place...

Cheers
Stark

The best thing to do is to put in headings and format it nicely using GuideML. Otherwise, I like it. I wrote the h2g2 entry on York.

!

I had this one on my list when it was languishing in the Workshop and guess what happened an hour ago

I don't think you should be holding back here, you should tell it like it is.


Nitpicking:

'greenbridge', 'wood street', 'Old town' should be capitalised.

The first person ('I') is not standard for Guide entries, but it should be easy enough to change it where it appears.

Commentary:

I guess the best thing you can say about Swindon is that it isn't Slough. The list of former Swindonians is quite interesting: Diana Dors (nee Fluck); Julian Clary (I think); Marc Lamarr; XTC (whose hit 'Only making plans for Nigel' does sum up the spirit of the town rather well; and incredibly enough, there are others, Sharon Davis still lives reasonably locally. And GWR has some interesting alumnii including Steve Wright.

Murray John was a town concillor in the 50s who realised that the town would die when Beeching axed so much of the railway infrastructure, and he was instrumental in bringing in other industries - Allied Crowbar and all those glass-fronted out of town office parks - to the place. I guess that his focus was commercial rather than cultural, and that current Swindon is his legacy. But without him it would have become a ghost town.

I have lived within 25 miles of Swindon on and off for most of the last 30 years, but even so, EVERY time I go there I find a new roundabout. The wierdest place. Two of its buildings - Renault and Motorola - have featured in Bond Movies, and to its eternal shame it is the home of BCA. (And to my eternal shame, I have worked for them).

Apparently - and I will beleive this - the demography of Swindon is a reasonably accurate microcosom of the rest of the UK, which is why it was trialled for the cash-less cash-card Mondex. And cable TV.

I actually like Swindon. It has taken unpretentiousness to its logical conlusion.

Ben

About the demography of Swindon, which should be noted (mainly because it's funny):

It is indeed the most average of UK towns. So much so that sociologists and market research people always target Swindon for their data (as well as trials for new technology). So much so that the poor people of the town get very very mad at you when you phone to ask them the inevitable multitude of questions.

Swindon, the capital of mediocrity.

Ste

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'Swindon, Wiltshire, UK'.

This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review Forum because your entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

You can find out what will happen to your entry here: http://www.h2g2.com/SubEditors-Process

Congratulations!

There goes my New Year's resolution...

Congratulations and thanks for writing such a good piece!