Slartibartfast is a Magrathean, and a designer of planets.[2] His favourite part of the job is creating coastlines, the most notable of which are the fjords found on the coast of Norway on planet Earth,[3] for which he won an award. While trapped on prehistoric Earth, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect see Slartibartfast's signature deep inside a glacier in ancient Norway.

When Earth Mk. II is being made, Slartibartfast is assigned to the continent of Africa. He is unhappy about this because he has begun "doing it with fjords again" (arguing that they give a continent a lovely baroque feel), but has been told by his superiors that they are "not equatorial enough". In relation to this, he expresses the view that he would "far rather be happy than right any day."

In any event, the new Earth is not required and, much to Slartibartfast's disgust, its owners suggested that he take a quick skiing holiday on his glaciers before dismantling them.

Slartibartfast's aircar is later found near the place where Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford Prefect, Trillian and Arthur Dent are attacked by cops, who are suddenly killed in a way similar to how the cleaning staff in Slartibartfast's study have perished. There is a note pointing to one of the controls in the aircar saying "This is the probably the best button to press."

In Life, the Universe and Everything Slartibartfast has joined the Campaign for Real Time (or "CamTim" as the volunteers casually refer to it, a reference to CAMRA) which tries to preserve events as they happened before time travelling was invented. He picks up Arthur and Ford from Lord's Cricket Ground with his Starship Bistromath, after which they head out to stop the robots of Krikkit from bringing together the pieces of the Wikkit Gate.
