Book info

• Title The Secret Life of Bletchley Park
• Author Sinclair McKay
• Year 2010
• Genre History

Bletchley Park was where one of the war’s most famous – and crucial – achievements was made: the cracking of Germany’s “Enigma” code in which its most important military communications were couched. This country house in the Buckinghamshire countryside was home to Britain’s most brilliant mathematical brains, like Alan Turing, and the scene of immense advances in technology – indeed, the birth of modern computing. The military codes deciphered there were instrumental in turning both the Battle of the Atlantic and the war in North Africa. But, though plenty has been written about the boffins, and the codebreaking, fictional and non-fiction – from Robert Harris and Ian McEwan to Andrew Hodges’ biography of Turing – what of the thousands of men and women who lived and worked there during the war? What was life like for them – an odd, secret territory between the civilian and the military?

Thoughts

I’ve started this book a couple of times I think, but this time it stuck - I’m mildly obsessed with Bletchley Park, the secrecy, the combination of using maths and language to make SUCH a difference to the world, the outrageous abuse of Alan Turing. This book tells the history of the park from pre-war, through great achievements and then the astounding secrecy that remained even after the war was done. We get to hear the story told from people who were there, and documents and facts that are now in the public domain, and it’s well done mixing a historical timeline alongside chapters on what life was like in the park. It felt a little drawn out in places but ultimatley is a great record of an incredible achievement.

Rating: 4 / 5