Clara’s Verdict
Popular science writing has a persistent tendency either to dumb down until nothing remains of the actual science, or to retain enough rigour that lay readers find themselves repeatedly adrift. Dr Becky Smethurst has solved this problem more elegantly than most. A Brief History of Black Holes is genuinely funny, properly informative, and carries the unmistakable quality of someone who finds their subject delightful and is impatient to share that delight with anyone who will listen. As an audiobook narrated by the author herself, it is remarkable.
About the Audiobook
Published by Macmillan in September 2022 and running at 7 hours and 5 minutes, A Brief History of Black Holes is by Dr Becky Smethurst, an award-winning astrophysicist at the University of Oxford who has built a considerable following through her YouTube channel for precisely the quality of explanation she brings to this book.
The title promises a history, and Smethurst delivers one: she traces five hundred years of scientific thought about the universe, from the earliest telescopic observations through the theoretical work that predicted black holes might exist, to the physics of stellar collapse and the extraordinary moment in 2019 when the Event Horizon Telescope produced the first actual image of a black hole’s silhouette.
Along the way she covers territory that could easily become impenetrable – spaghettification (the stretching of matter as it approaches a singularity), the event horizon, Hawking radiation, the relationship between black holes and galaxy formation – and renders each concept accessible without cheating. Her analogies are inventive: black holes are more like sofa cushions than hoovers, she insists, and beyond the event horizon the future becomes a direction in space rather than in time. These are genuinely illuminating framings, not mere simplifications.
The Narration
Smethurst narrates the audiobook herself, and if you have spent any time with her YouTube channel you will know exactly what you are getting: a voice that combines intellectual excitement with genuine warmth, and a delivery that makes the listener feel included in the discovery rather than lectured at. The BBC Sky at Night Magazine calls it “a jaunt through space history with charming wit and many pop-culture references,” which captures it well. The energy never flags across seven hours, which is a considerable achievement for a narration covering some dense material. This is one of the author-narrated audiobooks where the choice is simply non-negotiable – it would lose something significant with anyone else reading it.
What Readers Say
The audiobook holds a rating of 4.7 out of 5. Kevin Elliott writes that even though his brain “translated the page into Dr Becky’s voice” when reading, the actual audio version – “as if she was reading to me personally” – is better still. Alan K. Dell, a lifelong black hole enthusiast, found it “a great way to keep track of the new discoveries.” One reviewer describes it simply as a “proper page turner” – high praise for a science book. Another notes that it makes you feel you could “have a chat” with Smethurst and she would be just as friendly in person as in the book, which speaks to the fundamental approachability of the narration.
Who Should Listen?
Anyone who has ever wondered about black holes – which is, I suspect, a very large number of people – will find this enormously satisfying. It requires no prior scientific knowledge; Smethurst is careful to build from first principles. It is also a pleasure for listeners who already know the field and want to hear it explained beautifully. Science communicators, teachers, and students of astronomy will find it useful. And if you have a teenager who is fascinated by space, this is an ideal gateway audiobook.
Listen on Audible UK – get your copy here.
