The Reading Room

• Name: Lucy Hawking
• Date of Birth: 02nd November 1969
• Attended: Oxford University
• Occupation: Journalist and Novelist
• Bibliography: Jaded, Run for Your Life, George's Secret Key to the Universe

The universe is a very large place. So large that even a really intelligent super computer like Cosmos, the super computer which appears in my book, can sometimes get lost. It isn't as though there are maps either, covering the whole of the known universe, with ink blots where black holes lurk and circles showing the orbit of planets around far distant stars.

So sometimes, when Cosmos opens up the doorway to the universe, he doesn't always put it in the place you were hoping for. You might have asked Cosmos if you could see a comet, an icy, rocky fragment from the very early universe. Obligingly, Cosmos opens the door - provided you know the access codes to get into his system. You put on your spacesuit and you walk through. As you step through, suddenly you find yourself falling through space, a dark expanse lit only by bright stars.

You have to hope Cosmos knew what he was doing and that you will land on something. Otherwise you could just keep falling through millions and billions and trillions of miles of space.

Fortunately for you, Cosmos knew that a comet in the Oort cloud, a giant sphere outside the solar system where trillions of comets hover, waiting to come close to us, had been shaken out of its usual position by a jiggle of gravity. Cosmos had calculated the path this comet would take as it flew towards our sun, whose heat melts the ice of the comet which streams out behind it like a long glittery trail made of thousands of tiny diamonds. And luckily for you, as you spiral downwards onto the dirty cosmic snowball, Cosmos got it right. You've landed safely on your comet and now you are watching the pale yellow ringed planet of Saturn rise in front of you.

But what's that? You haven't got a computer called Cosmos so you can't open a doorway and walk through it? Ah, but yes you do. Every time you open a book and start reading, it's as though you had opened Cosmos's magic doorway and jumped through, not knowing what adventures you would find on the other side. And you don't even have to put your space suit on!

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Lucy Hawking, daughter of Stephen, was born in 1969. When she left school, Lucy went to Oxford University to read French and Russian before embarking on a career as a journalist and author. Lucy wrote two adult novels before the idea of writing a book with her father to explain the cosmos to the over eights came to her.

George's Secret Key to the Universe and the brand new adventure, George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt, take childlike wonder and apply it to some mind blowing concepts. Asked about the division of labour, Lucy explains "My father was pretty closely involved in the books and certainly had plenty of comments to make."

She sees this move to children's books as a chance to pass on the science she grew up with. "The constantly expanding knowledge we are gaining about our universe shows it to be more truly fascinating than anything we could have imagined."