Brian Cox explores black holes phenomenon for William Collins

Professor Brian Cox has written a book on the “most extraordinary and mysterious phenomenon” of black holes for William Collins, with Professor Jeff Forshaw.

Myles Archibald, publishing director at William Collins, bought world rights to Black Holes from Martin Redfern at Northbank Talent Management. The book was acquired by executive editor Peter Hubbard at William Morrow in the US with simultaneous publication set for 2021.

The book explores the “most extraordinary and mysterious phenomenon” of black holes, with the announcement following on shortly after the first photograph of the phenomen.

“As well as being at the centre of galaxies they are also at the centre of current research in theoretical physics and astrophysics: they are the perfect laboratory where extreme physics takes place,” William Collins said. “Understanding them remains a holy grail.”

Black Holes is described as “a brilliant exploration of these amazing objects – how they are formed and why they continue to confirm that Einstein’s theory of general relativity is such a brilliant explanation of the Universe around us”.

Cox is a particle physicist, a Royal Society research fellow, a professor at the University of Manchester as well as researcher on the ATLAS experiment on the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. He is best known as a science broadcaster and presenter of the BBC “Wonders” trilogy, “Human Universe”, “Forces of Nature” and “Stargazing Live”, and has an OBE.

Forshaw is professor of theoretical physics at the University of Manchester, specialising in the physics of elementary particles. He has been awarded the Institute of Physics’ Maxwell Medal for outstanding contributions to theoretical physics, and its Kelvin Medal for helping the general public understand complex ideas in physics.

The pair have jointly written science books previously which were published by Penguin Random House imprint Allen Lane, including The Quantum Universe in 2011 and Universal: A Journey Through the Cosmos in 2016.

Archibald said: “They are the physical objects that manifest some of the most pressing problems in physics and Brian and Jeff are the perfect authors to bring together a whole myriad of complicated concepts with clarity. I am also delighted that after five bestsellers, we now have all of Brian’s future books on the list.”

The authors said: “Black holes are not only the most exotic objects in the Universe, understanding them offers us a unique window into some very profound physics… As with our other books, we will provide a serious treatment of the science that is genuinely accessible to the public. We are very grateful for the support of William Collins and are looking forward to the challenge of distilling what is probably the most exciting frontier in fundamental physics.”