This is a good second biography from the same author, but leaves one wanting more

SCIENCE WRITER Kitty Ferguson has been working with Stephen Hawking for decades, and produced his bestselling biography, Stephen Hawking: A Quest for the Theory of Everything, in 1992. An Unfettered Mind is her latest version on the same subject. Stephen Hawking is a British physicist and cosmologist, whose work on black holes and the origins of the universe—and many public appearances—have made him an academic celebrity. In 2009, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in USA. This would be enough to garner him superstar status, but the fact that he has ALS, a type of motor neuron disease which has cost him almost all neuromuscular control, makes him a man that everyone wants to read about. In 1962, Hawking was told that he would not live for more than two years (he turned 70 this year). He was appointed Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, the chair once held by Isaac Newton, and with the publication of his phenomenal bestseller, A Brief History of Time, Hawking entered drawing rooms all over the world. With so much publicity, it would be daunting for any biographer to come up with something new. Ferguson has made it almost halfway there. One would assume that her closeness to the subject would give her lots of material, but this is where the book leaves one dissatisfied. While we do get insights into a person who could be lazy, loved a good bet and was a poor driver, there are no real personal revelations. She seems to have too much respect for her subject to really lay him bare. This time around, Ferguson delves into areas she had not earlier: his slowly crumbling first marriage and divorce, followed by a second marriage and divorce 11 years later. However, if you are looking for insights into the tension and strife that must have beset the man, you may be a trifle disappointed. One of the strengths of the book lies in her handling of scientific issues; she uses metaphors, not maths, to make fairly complex ideas intelligible. She says, “Hawking’s life story and his science are rife with paradoxes. Things are often not what they seem.” Unfortunately, though, this book is pretty much as it seems. Perhaps one will need a third biography for a more complex and gripping tale of this exceptional scientist’s life.