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The Secret Lives Of Codebreakers: The Men And Women Who Cracked The Enigma Code At Bletchley Park (2012)

by Sinclair McKay(Favorite Author)

3.6 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0452298717 (ISBN13: 9780452298712)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Plume

review 1: I changed editions and lost my review, so here I go again. At 2 stars I rated this book as "OK", because for my money there was too many quotes from the ex BP people, which naturally were a bit ponderous because now they are all pretty old, and the author has been faithful to their words. Well, he is a journalist, so that's his job. That it may be, but it does not really make for a riveting read. As I said in my lost review, it may well be a book for the 10,000 people who worked at the Park over the 10 years or so of its existence. In fact I may send my copy to Canada to my half sister whose mother worked there as a Wren during at least part of the war. I was surprised to find how many books had already been written about the place, many of which were used as references fo... morer this book. I was entertained to find that when the government wanted to sell it in the mid 1940s they found that they didn't own it. It had been purchased by the head of the secret service in about 1937 because he was fed up with the fact that the wheels of government were grinding exceeding slow. This meant that a group of enthusiasts were able to get together and make sure it was turned into a museum, which it is now. So if you are a Bletchley Park relative, or enthusiast you might like this view of house and its organisation.
review 2: An interesting history of some of the people who were picked to work at Bletchley during WWII. I had read other books that went into plenty of technical detail about the Enigma codes and the science involved in decryption (Simon Singh's "The Code Book" has an excellent description), but I had never read about the actual people involved in the process. It was interesting to see that perspective and to remember that these were (mostly) everyday people thrust into this super-secretive world for several years. What's more amazing to me is how nobody knew about the goings-on at Bletchley until well after the war ended. A really fascinating time. The narrative wavers a little, and at some points I felt that I was reading something I already read a few pages before...but still an interesting book and I'm glad I read it. less

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