gripping account of a physicist whose speculations could prove as revolutionary as those of Albert Einstein… It can be consulted as a clear and authoritative guide through three decades of Hawking’s central contributions to cosmology.’ — Bernard Dixon in the New Statesman & Society ‘Excellent… From the opening pages, which relate the occasion when Shirley MacLaine sought an audience with her hero in a Cambridge restaurant, to the final chapter on “Hollywood, Fame and Fortune”, the book is well-nigh unputdownable… [It] ought to be read alongside A Brief History of Time as a kind of explanatory supplement.’ — Heather Cooper in the Times Educational Supplement ‘Fascinating… What makes this book so rewarding is the way that the authors have blended their account of Hawking’s science with that of his life, giving a picture of a remarkable scientist as a remarkable person.’ — Tony Osman in the Spectator ‘It’s compulsive reading, maybe because Hawking towers above it all, a complex and fascinating character who remains strangely elusive: boyish yet indomitable, stubborn yet charming, a private man revelling in fame.’ — Clare Francis in the Sunday Express ‘[Their book] conveys how scientific research is not just a dry intellectual pursuit but an adventure full of joy, despair and humour, and fraught with the sort of inter-personal problems and rivalries which mark all human endeavours.’ — Bernard Carr in the Independent on Sunday ‘Few scientists become legends in their own lifetime. Stephen Hawking is one. It is good to have this well-documented and immensely readable biography to remind us that the media-hyped “mute genius in the wheelchair” is in fact a sensitive, humorous, ambitious and occasionally wilful human being.’ — Paul Davies in the Times Higher Education Supplement