Stephen Hawking's father feared for his 'lazy' son who 'hung around the house', diary reveals

Published: 13:36, 25 May 2026 | Updated: 13:36, 25 May 2026 Before his son chronicled the beginning of time Frank Hawking feared Stephen was a disenchanted student with little drive, his diaries reveal.  Stephen Hawking, whose work in the field of cosmology remains one of the greatest contributions to science, was just like many other university undergraduates.  When his son was aged 19 at Oxford University, his father remarked in January 1961: 'We are a little worried at the way Stephen is turning out.  'He hangs round the house with little initiative and does not study much.' But by the age of 24 Stephen's thesis on an expanding universe saw him rewarded with a doctorate at Cambridge University. And from there he began to work on his theories of black holes and became a household name.  Yet, his father's encoded diary based on the Greek alphabet, reveal his early fears for his son, which many parents of unversity students might experience.  'At his age I had a burning ambition to get on, and if only I had had half his advantages, I should have done much better,' he lamented. Trustees of the Hawking Estate: Frank Hawking holding his son Stephen Hawking in 1942. The extracts came to light during research by Graham Farmelo, who is writing the first authorised biography called Hawking: His Life and Work, being published by John Murray in September. The passages were given to Mr Farmelo after they were discovered at Stephen sister's address.  Stephen died in March 2018 aged 76, after living since the age of 21 with motor neurone disease. His struggle with the illness along with his book 'A Brief History of Time' which sold tens of millions of copies, combined to make him a heroic figure of resilience to many.  But the diaries give an insight into how Stephen came close to abandoning his work in physics. One passage reads: '[Isobel] says he has an inferiority complex to me (he has no need to) and he has lost faith in physics at Oxford, thinking it is inferior to arts. 'This is a great pity if so' his father wrote. Frank was a doctor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, while his wife Isobel was a secretary at a medical research institute.  The encoded pages from the diary, first seen by The Times, cover more than 60 years with some 200,000 words already translated by Mr Farmelo. Frank wrote: 'This journal was originally written in Greek script to form a simple secret code and so secure greater privacy, which is essential for a journal which may fall into the hands of enemies or easily wounded intimates.' The diaries also provide a harrowing account of his son's illness. After the birth of Stephen's first son in May 1967, Frank wrote: 'Everything is so dreadfully slow and long drawn out.  'His speech is so slow and difficult to understand that conversation is very difficult. I am very sorry for him and will do all I can for him. But I don’t enjoy being with him.' No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.