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 gained was instrumental in turning both the Battle of Britain and the war in North Africa, and, according to official historians, their efforts shortened the war by at least two years. But no-one talked about it. All had signed the Official Secrets Act, and everyone kept their word. Only recently have the last surviving veterans told their remarkable story. Now, through dozens of new interviews, Sinclair McKay reveals what life was like for the men and women who worked at Bletchley Park, trapped in an odd, secret territory somewhere between civilian and military. It’s an amazing compendium of memories – of portentous arrival at a gloomy railway station in the dead of night; of eccentric geniuses like Alan Turing who solved astonishing intellectual problems; of gruelling night shifts, exhilarating dances, ardent romances sealed down peaceful country lanes – and, above all, of the implacable secrecy that meant that married couples working in adjacent huts knew nothing of each other’s work, even decades after the end of the war.

About the Author

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.

Reviews

'McKay's book is an eloquent tribute to a quite remarkable group of men and women, whose like we will not see again.' Four stars **** Mail on Sunday 'I found this a truly breathtaking, eye-opening book.' - A. N. Wilson Reader's Digest 'McKay has succeeded in honouring a genuinely remarkable group of people in a solid, often entertaining and above all warm-hearted way.' Daily Mail 'It is their stories, and the humbling thought of what their dedication to duty achieved, that make this book worth reading.' Four stars **** Daily Telegraph 'A remarkably faithful account of what we did, why it mattered, and how it all felt at the time.' The Guardian 'It is all so indelibly - and movingly - British.' Five stars ***** Seven (Sunday Telegraph) 'Intriguing oral history...with an anecdotal style McKay offers new insights into what life was like at the famous station' Who Do You Think You Are magazine 'A telling and fascinating account of an extraordinary war' Good Book Guide 'Amazing compendium of first-hand memories' Sunday Express