A biography of the physicist recognises his achievements, but also reveals the selfish narcissist underneath<\/p>\n
When I wrote an unadoring review of Stephen Hawking\u2019s final book, a collection of essays published posthumously in 2018, New Scientist suppressed some of my criticisms on the grounds that it was \u201ctoo early\u201d to voice anything other than praise for the physicist who died, aged 76, that March. It was apparently still too early in 2021, when no British publisher would touch Charles Seife\u2019s expos\u00e9 of Hawking\u2019s bullying and self-aggrandising behaviour, Hawking Hawking.<\/p>\n
In this new biography, veteran science writer Graham Farmelo takes a different approach. It is a comprehensive and accessible portrait of a brilliant scientist and an extraordinarily determined man who also possessed deep personal flaws to which the scientific community and the public mostly turned a blind eye. The uncomfortable but unavoidable truth is that Hawking\u2019s overweening ambition and self-promotion, his repeated failure to acknowledge the work of others, his sexism and controlling behaviour were largely ignored because of his disability. I think it is indeed going to take us years to process that.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/60309c119cd6a95841eb46dc2c9f177736bb7dd9\/24_825_4449_3559\/master\/4449.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=04fa2e691e051ee9dd849bf0895bf5b6\" "\\"Hawking")
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"