The physicist has written a simple, short memoir. He grew
up in England just after the Second World War ended. He had
been born in Oxford; this excellent start for a science
student was occasioned by the fact that London, where his
family lived, was being bombed heavily, but Oxford and
Cambridge were being spared this punishment in return for
Britain agreeing not to bomb Heidelberg and Gottingen.
MY BRIEF HISTORY is illustrated with charming photos of
Hawking and his sisters, of blitzed London, of the Oxford
rowing team. As Hawking's father had grown up very poor and
got scholarships to train as a doctor, it was inevitable
that his son should be sent the same route. After the war
however society was trying to rebuild itself and little
Stephen's school didn't believe in teaching children to
read; they were supposed to pick it up themselves. He
finally learnt aged eight. Like many very bright kids he
was a good but not exceptional student at school. While one
of his sisters did become a doctor, he preferred harder
sciences and concentrated on physics, chemistry and maths.
In 1959 he gained a scholarship to study at Oxford, aged
seventeen.
Having graduated Hawking went to Cambridge to become a
physics researcher in 1962. Cosmology and general
relativity had not progressed since Einstein in the 1930s,
and no experiments were being done. Hoyle, Feynman and
Sciama were the top people in the field at the time, trying
to move forward. Britain was losing researchers in a brain
drain to America, where nuclear physics was the in field.
The student began to notice that he was getting
increasingly clumsy, falling on stairs. A doctor assumed
that he was overdoing the beer. After a fall while skating
his mother got him to hospital, where a progressive disease
was diagnosed, but no further information could be given.
Hawking was only twenty-one and he says that he became
depressed but did not drink heavily as has been reported.
However he now realised that his aimless life could be put
to good use. He enjoyed his degree as he worked hard for
once, hampered by becoming less able to type or write. He
was also lucky enough to find and marry a student called
Jane Wilde in 1965.
Concentrating on the largely unstudied cosmology field
meant the starting point of the universe, black holes and
the like were awaiting mathematical proof by the young
research student, who had ample material for his PhD. From
1970 he was using a wheelchair; his wife coped with their
three children. A visit to Cal-Tech showed him that America
was far more advanced towards facilities for people with
disabilities. In 1985 Hawking had a choking fit at Cern and
his wife refused a hospital request to have his ventilator
turned off, getting him flown by air ambulance to Cambridge
where a tracheotomy saved his life but removed his speech.
An artificial voice system was provided to him by a
Californian computer expert, giving us the iconic figure in
the electric wheelchair we know today.
The further story tells of Hawking's life since, family
issues and coping with his motor neurone disease. There is
little room for descriptive prose, but there are occasional
flashes of humour, such as bets between scientists and
quiet asides on life. "My doctor told my wife that I was
coming home to die. I have since changed my doctor." The
progressive nature of his illness proved too much for both
his wives, sadly, but Hawkins is pragmatic about the
divorces and admits he owes his life to the ladies. He
wrote 'A Brief History of Time' to explain black holes and
the Big Bang to the general reader, without equations. His
publisher, Bantam Books, took his suggestion seriously and
sent lists of items which he needed to rewrite and
simplify. In 1984 the book was published and spent 147
weeks on the NYT bestseller list; 237 weeks on the London
Times bestseller list. With his daughter Lucy he has also
written a series of books for young people about science in
the adventures of 'George'. Hawking has won several awards
for his work, and helped to host the Paralympic Games in
London in 2012. The final photos show him on some of his
wide travels, meeting Queen Elizabeth, and experiencing
zero gravity. The cover photo is splendid.
There is discussion of physics in this book of course, but
the biographical material is the largest part and it is
wonderful to see inside the mind of this gifted man and to
see what made him become the person he is today. Hawking's
travels are by no means over, because he's booked to be a
space tourist. MY BRIEF HISTORY would make an unusual and
fascinating Christmas gift, or an entertaining and
inspiring read.
Stephen Hawking has dazzled readers worldwide with a string
of bestsellers exploring the mysteries of the universe. Now,
for the first time, perhaps the most brilliant cosmologist
of our age turns his gaze inward for a revealing look at his
own life and intellectual evolution.
My Brief History recounts Stephen Hawking’s improbable
journey, from his postwar London boyhood to his years of
international acclaim and celebrity. Lavishly illustrated
with rarely seen photographs, this concise, witty, and
candid account introduces readers to a Hawking rarely
glimpsed in previous books: the inquisitive schoolboy whose
classmates nicknamed him Einstein; the jokester who once
placed a bet with a colleague over the existence of a
particular black hole; and the young husband and father
struggling to gain a foothold in the world of physics and
cosmology.
Writing with characteristic humility and humor, Hawking
opens up about the challenges that confronted him following
his diagnosis of ALS at age twenty-one. Tracing his
development as a thinker, he explains how the prospect of an
early death urged him onward through numerous intellectual
breakthroughs, and talks about the genesis of his
masterpiece A Brief History of Time—one of the iconic books
of the twentieth century.
Clear-eyed, intimate, and wise, My Brief History opens a
window for the rest of us into Hawking’s personal cosmos.
The review was splendid. I admire the man Stephen Hawking. He did more with his life than most who have more. (Eileen Dandashi 9:36pm November 18, 2013)
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