The Secret Lives of Codebreakers: The Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park

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The Secret Lives of Codebreakers: The Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park

3.6 of 5 stars 3.60 · rating details · 351 ratings · 88 reviews

Until the mid-seventies Bletchley Park remained a secret. At a rambling Victorian house in the Buckinghamshire countryside, thousands of young people decoded and translated intercepted messages, whilst some of Britain's most brilliant minds effectively invented modern computing. Their greatest collective achievement was the cracking of the Enigma code. The intelligence gai...more

Paperback, 352 pages

Published September 25th 2012 by Plume (first published May 25th 2010)

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Oct 07, 2012 ^ rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-with-101-to-1000-ratings, history, non-fiction, places, reminiscences, war, outsourced, review-liked

The stories of many of the men and women who worked at Bletchley Park (BP) (SIS Station X) during and immediately after World War 2, are described within the pages of this book.

Once I’d finished pulling a face and managed to control my annoyance over the small-sized typeface with excessive white line-space above and below, my mind enthusiastically locked into learning how Bletchley Park , and some greatly moving memories. On the flip side I thought it unfortunate that somehow the author didn’t q...more The stories of many of the men and women who worked at Bletchley Park (BP) (SIS Station X) during and immediately after World War 2, are described within the pages of this book.

Once I’d finished pulling a face and managed to control my annoyance over the small-sized typeface with excessive white line-space above and below, my mind enthusiastically locked into learning how Bletchley Park , and some greatly moving memories. On the flip side I thought it unfortunate that somehow the author didn’t quite manage to bring the story to life. Too much reported speech; too little descriptive scene building. In other words, too journalistic for my taste.

Despite that, I did enjoy reading this book; for the simple interest of gaining an insight into what character of person worked at Bletchley Park; and what life was like for them: work, play, and billet. McKay rightly emphasises the character and personalities of the most gifted mathematicians, cryptographers, and codebreakers.. They are different from the rest of us. On learning that Angus Wilson was prone to childish tantrums to the extent that he threw himself into the lake in front of his friends (p.88) made me feel slightly less guilty about disliking his novels (penned later). Alan Turing is described as demonstrating symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome; Josh Cooper rejoiced in the regular habit of finishing his coffee and then throwing his empty cup into the lake (p144)!

What I found, and still find, most extraordinary was the universal culture that maintained secrecy. Across the board, BP workers whether mathematicians, debutantes, or Wrens simply didn’t talk in the outside world about their work. If they had done so, then the Allies significant strategic advantage gained from the cryptanalysis of German signals would have been immediately rendered utterly worthless. How different, one fears, it would be today, given the incessant babble-me-me-me-culture we (sadly) live in. Clearly considerable strength, and therefore power, lies in silence; or at the very least in a careful and thoughtful choice of words, precisely timed and placed.

Light bulbs lit up as my mind connected back to other books I have read on the subject of Bletchley Park’ wartime operations. McKay’s explanation as to why the station never passed any identifiable decrypts onto the Free French (p,213) and SIS reluctance to even contemplate sharing information about their bombe machines (translators) with MI5 (p224), for example. But it was more of a candle that lit as I sympathised with Oliver and Sheila Lawn’s sadness in seeing how over the last seventy years the green fields and agricultural land around Bletchley village became transformed into a network of dual carriageways and a multiplicity of roundabouts when Milton Keynes was built ‘next door’.

Thus the modern-day visitor to Bletchley Park really would be best advised to arrive by train (the site is only a short walk from the railway station). The visitor should also take care to visit the National Museum of Computing, on the same site. One thing I really do like about McKay’s book is that he doesn’t overlook the contribution made by Tutte, Newman and Flowers to the invention of the world’s first electronic computer (Colossus); a working recreation of which can be watched, with awe, today.
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Nov 13, 2012 Mary Ronan Drew rated it 3 of 5 stars

Bletchley Park. For most of us these days the name evokes a world of secrets and codes, the Enigma machine and the breaking of the German code, intelligence work and an important contribution to the Allies' winning World War II.

But from the end of the war in 1945 until the 1970s almost no one knew what had gone on there, what the 12,000 or so people who worked there did during the war. As they left, the employees were asked to sign the Official Secrets Act and forbidden to tell anyone what had b...more

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May 24, 2013 Mark Lancaster rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Absolutely fascinating. Bletchley Park is the former house and grounds acquired by the intelligence services just before the outbreak of World War II in 1939. McKay's account is beautifully written and well-rounded, exploring all aspects of the lives of the Bletchley workers. Being part of the intelligence services, the Bletchley employees had to sign the Official Secrets Act and couldn't speak a word about their work during or for thirty-plus years after the War. The workers were a mishmash of...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Peg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bletchley Park was the heart and body of Britain's code-breaking efforts during World War II. The German war machine used the very complicated Enigma Machine to communicate with the High Command's troops in the field, at sea and in the air. Confident that their code protocol was unbreakable, they passed messages back and forth at will. If it were not for the odd collection of men and women who worked at Bletchley Park from the late 1930's until the end of the war in 1945, the outcome might well...more

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Oct 24, 2012 L.K. Jay rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

I love anything to do with code-breaking and Enigma and this book really fit the bill. The very fact that I'm typing this review on a computer is testament to the work and development that occurred at Bletchley Park in the war.

This isn't a book about the code-breaking itself but rather the social history of life at the park and the extraordinary work that went on behind the scenes of the Second World War I had no idea just how large the operation was, approximately 9000 people were working there...more

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Feb 02, 2012 James Cridland rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First, I need to declare an interest: my grandmother was a codebreaker at Bletchley Park during the war. (Yes, a codebreaker, not a wren or a secretary.) So I didn't read this dispassionately.

This is an interesting book because of my family connections, therefore. It takes an interesting subject, and covers it, kind of chronologically, through Bletchley's time as a decrypting station. More or less chronologically, since each chapter is about a particular theme - so sometimes it can be a little c...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Kat Davis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a fantastic book! Told more from the human perspective of those who worked at BP rather than the intellectual, it still, nevertheless gives a wonderful rendition of the cryptographic excellence this mixed group of people managed to achieve. The fact that the goings on at Bletchley were kept secret for so many years, to the detriment of British computing genius and deserved individual honours (Turing), is astounding.

Reading this book I often felt humbled and wondered how today's youth would...more

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Oct 02, 2012 Cynthia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

Now it can be told

I’m a Bletchley Park addict so prepare for some gushing. McKay’s book had a more social bent than most of the books I’ve read which were more focused on the mechanics of breaking the Enigma Code itself. McKay looks at the invention of the machines such as the bombe and the colossi and the people who invented them and kept them running 24/7 throughout the war. He explores some of the military operations that captured key pieces of information and most fascinating, the history of...more Now it can be told

I’m a Bletchley Park addict so prepare for some gushing. McKay’s book had a more social bent than most of the books I’ve read which were more focused on the mechanics of breaking the Enigma Code itself. McKay looks at the invention of the machines such as the bombe and the colossi and the people who invented them and kept them running 24/7 throughout the war. He explores some of the military operations that captured key pieces of information and most fascinating, the history of the war and how that interacted with the work at Bletchley.

The work of code breaking started out small. It was spearheaded by some key players from WWI. These men were the ones who had the vision to expand this work during the Second World War. To do this they not only gathered their former colleagues but they went to some top English schools and discreetly asked the professors who of their students might be good at this work. In short it was an old boys club….but what a club! These were the best and the brightest…and sometimes titled….of their generation. This was also the era of the gifted amateur and so this was another group that was gradually folded in. These amateurs were sometimes working class with brilliant minds and a driving work ethic that was ratcheted up even tighter by the Park’s shared purpose. Then there were the WRENS and other women who ran their feet off delivering messages between huts, typing, and creating a complex filing system so the already decoded messages could be collated easily against newly translated ones. Bletchley was a closed community so it also required waitresses and cleaners. The truly amazing thing is no one betrayed the secret that was Bletchley! Well almost no one but there was some clever damage control in these cases though it happened seldom.

Because so many of the Park workers were college aged this was their university. The intensity of their work put their learning on hyper speed. They made time for fun forming singing and drama clubs with some astounding talent….so much so that they took their performances to the nearby towns where they could be enjoyed.

I’m glad this information is being de-classified and that it’s now coming to light. Sadly, because of its secretive nature, some of the history of Bletchley has been lost. The participants could not reveal the part they played in the war. That’s why books such as “The Secret Lives of the Codebreakers: The Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park” are so essential.

This review is based on an e-galley provided by the publishers.

If you’d like to read more in depth about breaking the codes I’d recommend:
http://www.amazon.com/Between-Silk-Cy...
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Jan 11, 2013 Vic Heaney rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I spent time at Bletchley Park. Not during the war, but not too long afterwards. It amazed me for many years that so little was known about the work carried on there, which by common consent shortened the war - the only debate is by how many years. What is really astonishing is how all those thousands of people kept the secret for another 30 years.

This book paints an excellent picture not only of what was done at BP, but of the type of people who did it.

I remember being in the area in 1988 and...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you’re an Anglophile, a history buff, a lover of stories of small communities becoming a tribe, this is the book for you. If you have any interest in Bletchley Park or codebreaking, this will be your go-to book. Meticulously researched (the author seems to have read every scrap of paper relating to the subject), The Secret Lives of Codebreakers lives up to its title by evoking the day-to-day lives of the Park residents, from the notorious Turing to a 14-year-old waitress who worked in the din...more

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Oct 13, 2012 Lil rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I debated whether this deserved three stars or four... early in the book, it was near to earning five, because it was exactly the account of the sociology of Bletchley Park that I'd been seeking. This was such a great relief after struggling through so many mathematical accounts of BP's work. And this book did shed a light on what the actual lives of the people there would have been like - both the big brains like Turing and Knox and the Debs and the girls from Scotland who all got mixed into th...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: england, net_galley, biography, non-fiction-history

I have to admit that the activities of Bletchley Park during WW2 and the ordinary and extraordinary people who worked there to crack the Enigma code have always been something of a fascination. I grew up a couple of miles from Bletchley in the late 1970s, so the fascination always had a strangely detached but familiar side, particularly since everyone knew something had happened there during the war, but would only speak in whispers about what it could have been, and this was when the secret was...more I have to admit that the activities of Bletchley Park during WW2 and the ordinary and extraordinary people who worked there to crack the Enigma code have always been something of a fascination. I grew up a couple of miles from Bletchley in the late 1970s, so the fascination always had a strangely detached but familiar side, particularly since everyone knew something had happened there during the war, but would only speak in whispers about what it could have been, and this was when the secret was out! So, the secrecy described in this book, provided by netgalley, about how questions weren't asked of those who worked there, and how the local population essentially colluded in what was going on, by keeping their mouths shut, was very true to how it actually felt all those decades later.

There are other books which explain how the Enigma code was cracked, and about the technological advances made at Bletchley which were the foundation for other technological advances, but this book talks about the lives of the people who worked there, and, most interestingly, explains the boredom of much of the work, and how not every single person located there was a codebreaker, but nonetheless treats their experiences with real respect.

If I have any criticisms, they are focused on simply not being able to interview more people. Their insights are quite the most interesting thing about the book, and remind me of speaking to my parents about their wartime experiences, but the passing of time has meant that many of these people have now passed on, and the secrecy and lack of records has meant finding those still with us, who might be willing to share their experiences, is incredibly difficult. It's such a shame.

I did also have one other criticism, which is a bit less excusable. The author implies that it's not possible to keep secrets these days, because of Twitter or Facebook, which is quite obviously completely untrue. For example, government employees in the UK still sign the Official Secrets Act, and they still keep their mouths shut, and their families still don't ask them what they do. I know this because a member of my own family was employed in such a way, and I still haven't got a clue what he did. To suggest that people in WW2 miraculously were able to keep secrets, and we are not able to do so now is ridiculous, and really rather patronizing. I even think that those who worked at Bletchley Park would contend that they did what they had to, and I probably think it's the same now, if the country were presented with a similar situation.

So, lovely "slice of life" history of a fascinating place, populated with fascinating people. 4 stars.(less)

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Mar 09, 2012 Veronica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Undeniably an interesting subject, but I was a bit disappointed with this book. The idea of writing about the people at Bletchley, rather than the technology, was a good one, but the execution seemed a bit waffly and shallow in places. I felt McKay probably simply hadn't been able to gather enough in-depth material, both because of ongoing secrecy and lack of living witnesses willing to talk.

What disappointed me most was that McKay clearly doesn't know anything about the maths and science behind...more

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Jan 23, 2012 Stuart Aken rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Christmas present, this was a book I was unlikely to pick up for myself. However, I'm very pleased I was given the gift. WWII is long gone, of course, and for many of the younger generation probably holds little interest. I was born some years after its end and my parents were involved, of course, so it has some personal resonance for me.

I had, of course, heard of Bletchley Park; the place has shed its cloak of secrecy over the past few years. Several books, TV documentaries and other items h...more A Christmas present, this was a book I was unlikely to pick up for myself. However, I'm very pleased I was given the gift. WWII is long gone, of course, and for many of the younger generation probably holds little interest. I was born some years after its end and my parents were involved, of course, so it has some personal resonance for me.

I had, of course, heard of Bletchley Park; the place has shed its cloak of secrecy over the past few years. Several books, TV documentaries and other items have opened up the world that had previously dwelt only within the walls of the establishment and the minds of those thousands who had worked there. I suspect that most people now are at least aware of the invaluable work that was done in this otherwise rather nondescript property. There is, after all, a museum there now displaying the secrets of the code breakers.

What is not generally known is the way of life in the place during the crucial years of the war and it is this aspect that is covered by the bulk of this book. Written in an accessible style dotted with bits of humour, the book details the daily lives, the trials and most poignantly, the pervading requirement for absolute secrecy that prevented even those closest to the workers knowing what they were up to. These brave, talented and diligent men and women were unable to even hint at the nature of the work they did day in and day out. Many were ostracised by those who assumed they had a cushy job for the duration, many were unable to tell their relatives how they really spent the war and had to allow their parents to die without ever being given the chance to feel the very well deserved pride they would otherwise have known.

Full of detail and crammed with fascinating facts and descriptions of the various characters and personalities who made up the workforce of this extraordinary establishment, the book gives a real insight into the relationships, friendships and disputes that occurred. It also points the finger of blame at those senior military men and politicians without a clear understanding of the nature of the work done at Bletchley Park. That Churchill understood the vital significance of the operation is possibly the only reason it managed to continue with the task that shortened the war by two years and saved countless lives as a result.

On these pages you will find the petty squabbles, the passionate devotion to the task, the daily courage of people working against the odds and under dreadful conditions, the strokes of genius and the dedicated pure slog of perseverance when all seemed to be against them.

One other aspect of the book must be mentioned: contrary to Dan Brown's assertion that the modern computer was developed as the result of work in Harvard in 1944, this account makes it clear that Alan Turing and Tommy Flowers were working on the original idea of such a device and had built such machines at Bletchley during 1943. The problem was that all their work, both written and practical, was destroyed on the orders of a government obsessed with the possibility that the Russians might somehow gain from the knowledge. Thus, GB's computer industry never really got off the ground.

If you're interested in real people, tales of courage, accounts of social interaction between all classes for a common cause, if you want to read a true account that will amuse, inform and move you, I suggest you give this book a read. I've enjoyed the journey and can recommend it to all those who have an interest in the human condition.
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May 15, 2013 Margaret Sankey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Anyone who has been in a class with me has heard about Bletchley Park, and the bombe and the recruitment of acrostic prodigies. This is a new book following the experiences of the many participants in the huge enigma breaking effort, some of them Oxford dons, others society girls recruited for their presumed sang froid, higher loyalty and aristocratic organizational skills. McKay dig out the memories of local kids who delivered messages, people who worked in the canteens, amazingly tight-lipped...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Bonnie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Part of my WWII reading phase and learning about things I had no clue about. Interesting and another feather in the cap for 1) women, 2) British "just do it and don't whine about it" attitude. If you don't know what the German Enigma machines were or did --- this is your book. Code-breaking at it's most amazing and completed by a unique compilation of men and women - the smarties, the pretties, the ones who just wanted to help their country beat the German codes because the Germans were brillian...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Nick Wass rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A great in depth look at what was perhaps the most overlooked part of the British war effort.

It takes a look at not only the code breakers, but also the life of those that were, essentially, forced to live and work there during WWII. All aspects of that extraordinary life are looked at with many personal first had accounts. It really is an amazing story.

I think perhaps a short chapter somewhere on the way that codes were broken might help the reader though I suppose this would have to be a simpl...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Ali rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 o...more 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? Sinclair McKay’s book is the first history for the general reader of life at Bletchley Park, and an amazing compendium of memories from people now in their eighties – of skating on the frozen lake in the grounds (a depressed Angus Wilson, the novelist, once threw himself in) – of a youthful Roy Jenkins, useless at codebreaking, of the high jinks at nearby accommodation hostels – and of the implacable secrecy that meant girlfriend and boyfriend working in adjacent huts knew nothing about each other’s work.

I recently watched a documentary on BBC2 about the WW2 codebreakers, and my reaction to the fascinating subject was to immediately go to Amazon.co.uk and find book that would tell me more. This was the book I bought, and I am glad that I did. This really is a fascinating book, that lifts the veil on an extraordinary place and the dedicated men and women who spent the war years undertaking such crucial work. One of the things which both amazed and impressed me the most, was the level of secrecy that was needed, for Bletchley park to be able to exist at all. The thousands of people who worked there - kept silent - with each other, and with their families after the war - right up untill the 1980's. Additionally the people of the surrounding areas who provided "billets" for these hordes of Bletchley workers, not only kept quiet - but didn't even ask their boarders what it was they were doing up at the park. In the world we are living in now, such secracy is unimaginable. I must admit - some of the mathematical, engineery, code descriptions and details - went a tiny bit over my befuddled head - however this is a very accessible book, and certainly not academic or dry. Even the sections I found hardest to understand - and there were only a couple - were still strangely fascinating to read - and I know I have come away from the book with a much better understanding of code breaking than I would otherwise have ever had. The majority of the book however, and what makes it so readable, is about the people who worked there, the society girls, the brilliant ox-bridge minds, the factory workers, the romances, the dances and plays, the miserably cold huts and the revolting food. (less)

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Sep 21, 2011 Gerald Sinstadt rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Perhaps if I had read the reviews here before buying this book I might have gone to a different account of what they were up to at Bletchley Park. They were unravelling Enigma, of course; that much has been in the public domain for some time. But how? Sinclair McKay doesn't really tell us although he does seem to assume a degree of common knowledge that was not common to me.

There were clearly personnel with different roles: the Wrens who tended the machines, the code-breakers, and the translato...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Lauren rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

Compared to Station X, this is a more personal look at Bletchley Park, and because of the way the book follows people's stories (rather than the story of codebreaking and the war [which is often convoluted]), it's easier to follow. It's not as in-depth as Station X, and sometimes suffers from some weird transitional issues when moving from one person to another, as it seems to assume that the reader can't keep the various people separate.

It's not fantastic, but it is a good portrait of various f...more

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May 08, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arts-and-historical

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 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....more

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Aug 26, 2012 Geoff rated it 4 of 5 stars

I stumbled across The Secret Lives of Codebreakers on NetGalley and decided to request a copy as I planned on reading David Leavitt’s The Man Who Knew too Much, and I am glad I did. This book tells the stories of the individuals of Bletchley Park—not just what they were working on, but what they did in their spare time, where they came from and where they went after the war. In essence, it does everything I wanted The Man Who Knew too Much to do about Alan Turing but didn’t.

I received a copy of...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Caitlin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

A social/oral history of life in Bletchley Park during WWII. It's easy to forget how incredibly heroic the British were during WWII - all that they endured, all that was sacrificed. It's good to be reminded and to be inspired. Breaking the Enigma Code and turning the information into actionable intelligence was the work of many people from crossword puzzle enthusiasts to dons in Mathematics from Cambridge and Oxford. There were military men, scores of young women, and all the logistics associate...more

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Feb 18, 2012 KOMET rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: second-world-war-non-fiction

Bletchley Park -- described as an "idiosyncratic" Victorian house set on 55 acres situated halfway between London and Birmingham --- served during the Second World War as Britain's nerve center for the breaking and deciphering of the German Enigma codes.

In reading this story, the reader learns about the unique set of men and women -- military, civilian, university educated, debutantes, and some of the most brilliant minds ever brought together for one noble, overarching, salutary objective ---...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Vicky Thomasson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A very interesting account of the secret life at Bletchley Park. I felt that it was very well written covering many aspects of life at the Park including code breaking, romance and a glimpse of how the workers enjoyed their social life. Although I found the odd chapter a little bit boring, after finishing this book I felt incredibly proud that not only did our Nation help to prevent the war continuing for another two years but for the fact that these incredible people managed to keep such a mass...more

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Jan 18, 2013 F rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Having visited Bletchley Park, now a fascinating museum telling the story of the WWII codebreaking centre, it was a pleasure to read Sinclair McKay's thoughtful depiction of the stories of those who worked there, their memories, and what he is able to tell about the work that took place there.It is his attempt to pay tribute to those whose contribution to the war effort remained secret for so many years. Worth reading before you visit, or after, or indeed instead of visiting!

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May 22, 2013 Abigail rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Great content--interesting stuff that I've never heard. Amazing civilians who, according to some, won World War II for the Allies. I've seen the film "Enigma" but can't remember much of it, so I'm planning on getting it from Netflix as soon as we return to the States. And I'm hoping to visit Bletchley Park while we're here in the UK--it'd be a shame to miss it as we are in the same county.

I only wish the book had been edited properly--the flow could use some help.

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Jan 09, 2013 Alice rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, war

I've been interested in Bletchley Park since I was a student in the mid-1990s, when a number of documents relating to BP were released from the Official Secrets Act in a flurry of TV documentaries. As a classicist, I knew there was a strong probability some of my own tutors had worked as codebreakers; professors of Latin and Greek were among the first recruits. I was hugely disappointed in Robert Harris's Enigma, finding the love story far less interesting than the real-life espionage story used...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Nicola rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012

Despite being a little hard to follow in some areas with jumping back and forth chronologically, I seriously loved this book. It's opened up a large part of the war effort I knew very little about and that certainly wasn't covered in two very dull years of GCSE history. Alway having a soft spot for Alan Turing and his geeky colleagues this was always a tale that was going to make me blub out loud and I was not disappointed in that regard! Highly recommended.

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Apr 04, 2013 Perry Andrus rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, ww2

Entertaining look at the British code breaking effort at Bletchley Park during WWII. It is mainly focused on the lives of the participants who have written accounts of their lives during this period. There is attention to what it was like to administer such a collection of people. There is even some discussion of what it was like to break codes and read intercepts.

I am glad I found this book int he "New Books" section of the county library.

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About Sinclair McKay

Sinclair McKay writes regularly for the Daily Telegraph and The Secret Listeners and has written books about James Bond and Hammer horror for Aurum. His next book, about the wartime “Y” Service during World War II, is due to be published by Aurum in 2012. He lives in London.
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Books by Sinclair McKay

The Man With the Golden Touch: How The Bond Films Conquered the World

A Thing Of Unspeakable Horror: The History Of Hammer Films

Ramble on: The Story of Our Love for Walking Britain

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title link	preview: The Secret Lives of Codebreakers: The Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park
avg rating	preview: The Secret Lives of Codebreakers: The Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park Goodreads rating: 3.60 (351 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13542383-the-secret-lives-of-codebreakers?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1341792535l/13542383.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13542383-the-secret-lives-of-codebreakers?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Secret Lives of Codebreakers: The Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park by Sinclair McKay[/url]

The Secret Lives of Codebreakers: The Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park

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