Author Douglas Adams, who wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, has died suddenly aged 49.

Mr Adams died on Friday morning in Santa Barbara, California, following a heart attack, said his spokeswoman Sophie Astin.

The author became a household name when the cult science fiction novel was turned into a BBC TV series.

Adams was born in Cambridge in 1952 and educated in Essex before returning to Cambridge to study at St John's College.

His career included work as a radio and television writer and producer before his life was changed by the publication of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in 1979.

The satirical tale chronicled the journey of alien Ford Prefect and his human companion Arthur Dent throughout the universe after the destruction of Earth.

It centred around the search for an answer to life, the universe, and everything - which turned out to be 42.

The novel went on to sell more than 14 million copies worldwide and was followed by the sequels The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe and Everything and So Long and Thanks For All the Fish.

In recent years the author had been working on a Hitchhiker's Guide movie.

There was much speculation about who would play Arthur Dent, with Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carrey, Ben Affleck and even Bruce Willis said to be in the running.

Adams married Jane Belson in 1991 and had a daughter, Polly, in 1994.