One of England’s pre-eminent scientists Stephen Hawking is somewhat of a celebrity. I guess that is no surprise given all the acclaim for his published tomes (including one book which was in the London Sunday Times best-seller lists for nearly 4.5 years! Not to mention all his public appearances. The fact that the man also has a motor neurone disease, which has progresses to the extent that he is almost completely paralysed, makes him a truly intriguing personality.

I had no idea what to expect from tonight’s appearance at the Royal Albert Hall. I was wondering how he would speak, would he take questions, what exactly would he be talking about? When he first appeared on stage he looked so tiny! I mean, the Royal Albert Hall is a huge venue and there he was on the stage all by himself, sitting in his wheel chair which made him look ever smaller!

Expected not to last beyond 23-24, he is now an impressive 69! An emergency tracheotomy to help him with a life-threatening pneumonia over 25 years ago meant he lost his ability to speak – so now he uses an electronic voice synthesizer to communicate. As a result there were long gaps between paragraphs/sentences. It was really strange to hear the entire Hall pretty much in silence as they waited patiently in between the gaps.

Unfortunately the guy next to us wasn’t so interested – he yawning and sleeping, and picking his nose even! Oh boy.

I wouldn’t say it was the most inspirational talk I’ve even been to, but the inspiration was definitely in the man himself. As an added bonus we also each received a copy of The Grand Design – the new book that he was releasing.