My Brief History - A Memoir  (English, Hardcover, Hawking Stephen)

Flipkart Official Review

Everyone knows of Stephen Hawking. Those even who are not related to the field of physics or astronomy have heard of him. He needs no introduction. He is the man who explored the cosmos like no one else has, according to me. Stephen Hawking has written a lot of books on the phenomenon of science and its mysteries and in his latest and brief book he speaks about his life.

“My Brief History” is about his life – well in brief. He speaks from the time he was born to his interest in science to his humble beginnings to his suffering and finally to how he decided to overcome it in his own way. The book may be a small one, however it gives us more insight into the person that Hawking was and is. Truly a treat for all his fans and for people who want to know more about his life.

Published in the year 2013, My Brief History: A Memoir is a stunning autobiography of Stephen Hawking, one of the century’s leading cosmologists.

Summary Of The Book

My Brief History: A Memoir is a documentary about Stephen Hawking, from the days of his youth to his groundbreaking study of the universe’s origin. The book talks about his upbringing in London, where his family resided in a Victorian house that his parents bought at a subsidized rate during the war. He was passionate about model trains, which motivated him to develop a war game that comprised 4000 squares. This book also talks about his school days, where Hawking found biology uninteresting, a subject that was a bit too descriptive to him.

He chose to study Mathematics and went on to become a renowned figure in the world of physics, in recent times. Hawking was diagnosed with ALS aka Lou Gehrig’s disease, in his early 20s, but that didn’t stop him from continuing his studies. It was during his final year at Oxford that the young lad was struck with the disease. He recounts that he began to get clumsy, fell down the stairs, after which the doctor told him to slash his beer intake. Hawking mentions that during his three years at college, he studied for just 1,000 hours, which was just around half an hour daily. He managed to scrape through with a first-class degree, after which he pursued a doctoral degree at Cambridge University. As his condition worsened, the doctors gave up on him, which caused him to slip into depression.

However, it was not too long after that Hawking began to regain his lost hope. He remembers the young boy, who passed away due to leukaemia, in the adjacent bed. He states that whenever he started feeling sorry for himself, he remembered that incident. Hawking started enjoying life more and soon got engaged to a girl named Jane Wilde. He understood that if he was going to get married, he needed to have a job, which which made him realize he needed to finish his doctoral degree. Hawking started working harder, and earned his doctoral degree. He soon propagated his theory behind the evolution of the universe.

Hawking also talks about his marriage in one chapter, where his wife asked the local church organist to move in, as she expected Hawking’s death soon. From his bad days to the good, Hawking opens up to the readers, telling them about little known facts about himself.

About Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking is an author, cosmologist, and theoretical physicist.

Some of Hawking’s books include George’s Secret Key To The Universe, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, The Universe in a Nutshell, and A Brief History of Time.

Hawking was born on 8th Jan, 1942. He finished his schooling from St Albans School. Hawking went on to study at the University College, Oxford, where he obtained a first class honors BA degree. He finished his Master’s degree from Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He finished his D.Phil. degree in March, 1966. He is the Director of Research at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Theoretical Cosmology. Hawking is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has also served at the University of Cambridge as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.