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the programs. Hello, Paul Deerech, 1992 to 1984, made some of the greatest discoveries in

20th century physics, second only to Einstein.

He used beautiful mathematics to reveal the fundamentals of nature such as antimatter, and his ideas

have been described as exquisitely carved marble statues falling out of the sky.

Yet while there are many statues of Einstein, there are barely any of Dirac, even in his native Bristol,

despite his Nobel Prize, his plaque in West Mr Abbey, and Stephen Hawking's

claim that Derek was the greatest British theoretical physicist since Newton.

We'd merely discuss Paul Derek's work in life are David Berman, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Queen Mary University of London.

Val Gibson, Professor of High Energy Physics at the University of Cambridge and fellow of Trinity College, and Graham

Farmalo, biographer of Derek and fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge.

Grand Farmolo, can you tell us about Derek's early childhood and his relationship

with his parents.

Yeah, well, Dereck said that he never had a childhood,

and what he meant by that was that it was unlike any typical childhood that he came to know about. He was in an unusual family.

His father was Swiss, his mother Cornish. He had a brother and a sister. They had almost no family

visitors and the father insisted on speaking to his children only in French.

Mother insisted on speaking to his children only in French. Mother insisted on speaking only in English. So there was this kind of Balkanization where he would sit with his father speaking only in French,

while his mother and the other two siblings were speaking only in English.

This is in Bristol.

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