Stephen Hawking memoir: ‘An iron man in a frail man’s facade’

Leonard Mlodinow’s book on his friendship with Stephen Hawking shows another side to the late physicist, including tales of punting in Cambridge and annoying a restaurant chef

By Gege Li

WHEN physicist Stephen Hawking died in 2018 at the age of 76, the world mourned. But after the loss, there remains the enormous legacy of the scientist and the man to consider.

And what a legacy. Renowned for decades of work on cosmology and black holes, with A Brief History of Time selling more than 25 million copies since its release in 1988, Hawking reshaped our understanding of some of the trickiest areas in modern physics.

Among …