10^th March 2015

The time is Winter 1963 at Cambridge University, the Winter of Honest To God, but there was no mention of it in the film.

Stephen Hawking is one of a clutch of new doctoral students who are taking up their futures.  But he has a tremendous accident in which his head can be heard to crack like an egg.  He has all the care he could wish for, physical, spiritual and scientific.  He was told by the doctor that he had two years to live.  His mathematics continues and he does well.  With all the help, who could not do well?  He passes his Ph.D. with a quote from Einstein ‘God does not play dice with the world’ and publishes a book A Brief History of Time.

He is showered with many honours, including a lectureship at Bordaux.  While there he collapses and when in hospital a professor advises he should be allowed to die.  He wife, Jane, is appalled and tells the professor to do all he can to prolong his life.

He has all the support and comfort he requires, loving wife and a whole bevy of assistance, but there were many strains and Hawking and his wife divorced.  He is now a grandfather.

Eddie Redmayne plays Hawking and Felicity Jones is his wife.  James Marsh has crafted a fine and exquisite film.

There are many honours heaped upon Hawking and he is now about to seek his ‘Theory of Everything’.

A day after viewing the movie I was in the middle of an afternoon nap when I heard my wife playing the piano,  old evangelical tunes ‘Blessed Assurance’ and ‘Oh Happy Day’. 

What answer have you for that, Professor Hawking?

Rowan Gill