This is a book review of Stephen Hawking: Friendship and Physics by Leonard Mlodinow.
Stephen Hawking: Friendship and Physics, by Leonard Mlodinow (Penguin), 2020. Pp. 232, 20 × 13 cm. Price £14.49 (paperback, ISBN 978 0 141 99132 0).
This is a memoir about Stephen Hawking. It is neither a biography nor a (popular-)science book, though it contains elements of both. Mlodinow is Hawking's co-author on a couple of popular-science books; Hawking had contacted him because he liked his writing. He is not some sort of ghost writer with Hawking's name on the cover just for selling the book (though his name certainly helped sales); not only is Mlodinow a physicist but the books that he co-authored with Hawking --- which, like his other books, I haven't read --- were genuine collaborations. About a third of the book is about their writing collaboration on _The Grand Design_(1) (their second after _A Briefer History of Time_(2)), a third about Hawking's life up until then, and a third about Hawking's work, with the three threads interleaved. The book is well written, reflecting the fact that Mlodinow has alternated between being on the faculty of Caltech and working mainly as a writer, on a variety of scientific topics, though to some extent he also wrote while on the faculty and did research when mainly writing. Hawking's science is described in simple terms but without distorting it. This bookshould appeal to those looking for an introduction to Hawking and/or his work.