Stephen Hawking's father worried his son does not study much', diaries reveal

Stephen Hawking became a leading figure in black hole theory and wrote A Brief History of Time, which sold more than 13 million copies. During his student years, his father worried about Hawking’s lack of initiative and study habits, recording concerns in diaries written partly in secret code. A biographer and physicist, Graham Farmelo, received unprecedented access to family papers and photographs, including diaries from Hawking’s father and letters and journals from his mother, Isobel, kept in Hawking’s sister Mary’s home. Farmelo will publish the first definitive authorized biography with material that provides detailed insight into Hawking’s upbringing and the harrowing months after his 1963 motor neurone disease diagnosis at age 21. Hawking defied expectations and lived until 2018.

"Extract from diaries kept by Stephen Hawking's father, who wrote many entries using a secret code that the biographer Graham Farmelo has cracked Farmelo said: It was a wonderful, completely unexpected bonus to be given access to these diaries and papers. They are a 24-carat source of information about Stephen Hawking's life, especially his formative years and the harrowing months after his diagnosis of motor neurone disease when he was only 21 years old."

"He said it offered a raw and honest insight into Hawking's upbringing and the devastating diagnosis in 1963 of a fatal degenerative disease, which was to leave him almost completely paralysed. Hawking defied medical expectations that he would die within two years. He died in 2018, at the age of 76, having proved himself as one of the most celebrated minds of our time, carrying out ground"

"Those diaries are among family papers and photographs to which a Costa award-winning biographer and physicist has been given unprecedented access. In September, Graham Farmelo will publish the first definitive biography authorised by the Stephen Hawking estate, the publisher John Murray will announce this week. As part of his research, Farmelo has been shown previously unknown material ranging from the diaries of Hawking's father to the letters and journals of his mother, Isobel."

"Frank Hawking lamented that he hangs round the house with little initiative and does not study much, according to previously unknown diaries that he had written partly in code. They had been kept until now in the home of Hawking's sister Mary."

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