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Brief Answers to the Big Questions

'A beautiful little book by a brilliant mind' DAILY TELEGRAPH
Brief Description
THE MILLION-COPY and SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLER 'A beautiful little book by a brilliant mind' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Effortlessly instructive, absorbing, up to the minute and - where it matters - witty' GUARDIAN The world-famous cosmologist and #1 bestselling author of A Brief History of Time leaves... Read More
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The million-copy international bestseller, reissued to coincide with publication of HAWKING, Graham Farmelo's landmark biography of the world-famous cosmologist

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THE MILLION-COPY and SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLER 'A beautiful little book by a brilliant mind' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Effortlessly instructive, absorbing, up to the minute and - where it matters - witty' GUARDIAN

The world-famous cosmologist and #1 bestselling author of A Brief History of Time leaves us with his final thoughts on the universe's biggest questions in this brilliant posthumous work.

This edition includes colour illustrations alongside a foreword by Eddie Redmayne, an introduction by Nobel Prize-winner Kip Thorne, and an afterword by Lucy Hawking, Stephen's daughter.

Is there a God?

How did it all begin?

Can we predict the future?

What is inside a black hole?

Is there other intelligent life in the universe?

Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?

Will we survive on Earth?

Is time travel possible?

Throughout his extraordinary career, Stephen Hawking expanded our understanding of the universe and unravelled some of its greatest mysteries. But even as his theoretical work on black holes, imaginary time and multiple histories took his mind to the furthest reaches of space, Hawking always believed that science could also be used to fix the problems on our planet.

Now, as we face potentially catastrophic changes here on Earth - from climate change to dwindling natural resources to the threat of artificial super-intelligence - Stephen Hawking turns his attention to the most urgent issues for humankind.

Wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating, passionately argued, and infused with his characteristic humour, Hawking's final book is a personal view on the challenges we face as a human race, and where we, as a planet, are heading next.

A percentage of all royalties will go to charity.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781399843294

Publisher: John Murray Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 27 August 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: John Murray Publishers Ltd

Illustration: N/A

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 24.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 194.0mm

Weight: 200g

Pages: 288

About the Author

STEPHEN HAWKING was a brilliant theoretical physicist and is generally considered to have been one of the world's greatest thinkers. He held the position of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge for thirty years and is the author of A Brief History of Time which was an international bestseller. His other books for the general reader include A Briefer History of Time, the essay collection Black Holes and Baby Universes, The Universe in a Nutshell, The Grand Design and Black Holes: The BBC Reith Lectures. He died on 14 March, 2018.

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