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Einstein shuffled over to the corner of the room. He was in a large library on the second floor of his house, teeming with volumes by Isaac Newton, Kant, Spinoza and Goethe. He spent most of his time on his own, ruminating about details about his work. He usually wore dressing gown and slippers as he wandered around his library. He could spend hours on his own, walking through every room in his spacious house. Above all, he spent most of his time going through details about his work. His white hair branched out onto his grey sweater and occasionally onto his bushy moustache.

‘Albert!’ A voice echoed from the other side of the room. He had scurried across the stairs to the library. It was Walther Mayer, his assistant, a mathematician, his human calculator. He had short black hair, he was rather tall, had a rather large nose and he wore circular glasses. Like Einstein, he was also Jewish. Unlike Einstein, he wore a suit. He was carrying several newspapers with him, which were heavy and seemed to defeat him through their sheer weight.

‘Have you seen the newspapers?’ asked Mayer.

‘No,’ Einstein said, scratching his head.

‘Look, look.’ He showed him a copy of The New York Times, which ran a six-page feature devoted to Einstein. The headline said: ‘Light Askew in the Heavens.’ There were several headlines dotted across the newspaper: ‘Einstein’s Theory Triumphs,’ ‘Stars not Where They Seemed, or Calculated to Be, but Nobody Need Worry.’ He also carried copies of The Times, La Monde and The Daily Telegraph. ‘Do you realise what this means? You are a celebrity.’

Indeed, on November 6^th 1919 scientists at a meeting at the Royal Society of London, Royal Astronomical Society announced measurements taken during a solar eclipse. These measurements confirmed the existence of general relativity.

‘Oh… Well…’

Mayer laughed. ‘It is most unusual. We can understand why film actors are celebrities. We can understand why politicians are renowned, but… a theoretical physicist? Everyone is talking about you – bus drivers, bakers, teachers, waiters…’

Einstein raised his eyebrows. ‘Do they understand the theory of general relativity?’

Mayer again laughed. ‘I don’t think that they have the foggiest… But they find it fascinating how this man has understood the most complex secrets of the universe… Worked out by one person in a study… this very study.’

‘Well, with your help on occasion, Walther.’

‘Yes, when you stumbled on some complex mathematical problem you called for my help, but the discovery of general relativity is your achievement,’ Mayer exclaimed, as he placed the newspapers on a wooden table.

‘Well, they will ask me to give lectures at conferences, I imagine.’

‘More than that… You will appear at the cinema in the news bulletins that lead up films… You will appear alongside world leaders… You will appear in postcards. You will become a very rare thing – a renowned celebrity… who is a theoretical physicist.’

Einstein smiled. ‘Well, it is what it is, I guess. Meanwhile, I will stay in my study thinking through scientific problems… with occasional help from you, of course.’

‘Of course.’

‘Well, with all the problems in the world… This abhorrent war has just ended. Millions of people have died in the trenches. Nationalism is rampant, anti-Semitism is rampant, the economy is unstable… but this has managed to catch the public imagination,’ Einstein said.

‘Oh yes, people might seem to find a bit of respite… With the whole of Europe ripped to shreds, people might find solace in… Groundbreaking scientific discoveries,’ Mayer said.

‘Most peculiar.’

‘Of course, in antiquity they had the oracle of Delphi… They had Pythagorean shaman… In the medieval ages, they also had their prophets… People like it when someone has the secret answers to the workings of the universe. Before they sought it in religious figures, perhaps now they seek it in their most advanced scientists,’ Mayer said.

Einstein laughed. ‘So I am a prophet.’

Mayer joined in the laughter. ‘Most certainly, in these gloomy and uncertain times.’

‘Well, Newton died all alone, a virgin, an outcast,’ Einstein said.

‘You will not endure that fate.’

‘Oh, no, no… I am a loner, I like being alone. I like to revel in solitude so that I can think through these difficult problems… I will go to conferences, I will have my photographs taken, but what I will value first and foremost… will be my solitary study,’ Einstein said.

‘Where you will unlock many more secrets of the universe.’

‘I am sure that if Newton were alive today that many newspapers would be seeking him out,’ Einstein.

‘But you have overturned Newtonian physics!’

‘Yes, but no-one really knows the why and wherefores. I ought to write a book in which I explain general relativity to a general audience without using jargon.’

‘Or maths.’

‘Or indeed, no maths,’ Einstein concurred.

‘I think that you will be inundated with requests for interviews and photographs… As a matter of fact, you have received several already,’ Mayer said.

‘Well, I will receive them with gratitude.’

‘Well, Albert… I will leave you alone… for more solitary study. See you in a while, goodbye.’

‘Goodbye.’

Mayer walked off down the stairs. Einstein took the newspapers and resolved to read them. It was not a particularly vain thing to do, it was what anyone would do under the circumstances. How would The New York Times interpret general relativity? He was about to find out.