Review by Booklist Review
Britain's organization that broke Germany's Enigma codes during WWII, informally called Bletchley Park after the estate from which it operated, has inspired a sizable literature, both historical and fictional (e.g., Robert Harris' Enigma, 1993). McKay draws on that background material for his book about the personnel who worked at Bletchley Park. At their peak, they numbered several thousand, from whom McKay selects several to exemplify experiences from recruitment to demobilization in 1945. Some have rated their own biographies, such as mathematician Alan Turing (The Man Who Knew Too Much, by David Leavitt, 2005), but most of McKay's choices are less exalted in the history of the ultrasecret. They include a message runner, translators, and operators of code-breaking machines. Their reminiscences, which McKay links with references to WWII battles affected by decryptions of German messages, recall the various ways individuals received an offer of confidential government employment, their reactions to cramped housing and unappetizing food, and relentless years of work relieved by entertainments and romances. Fans of WWII cryptography will enjoy McKay's human-interest angle on the Enigma drama.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
McKay introduces readers to the bustling world of Bletchley Park, a facility dedicated to decoding German intelligence during World War II. Bletchley, located 50 miles outside London, featured a mansion with a series of long "huts" and a staff of nearly ten thousand of Britain's best and brightest decrypting around the clock. The work was so secretive workers were forbidden from discussing developments with anyone outside their own hut, much less the outside world. Here, mathematician Alan Turing, along with Gordon Welchman, created the "bombe" machine that mechanized code breaking, and, later, The Colossus, a precursor to the modern computer. McKay shares both Bletchley's many war-time achievements-including the sinkings of the Bismarck, Scharnhorst, and Tirpitz-and controversies, like that concerning Churchill's awareness of an impending Luftwaffe air raids on industrial West Midlands cities. Bletchley was also a cultural and romantic melting pot where military and civilians mixed, social class was irrelevant and there were plays, dances, and musical performances; many people even met their future spouses there. McKay brings the Park and its inhabitants to life in this compelling history of Britain's best kept secret of World War II. (Sept) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
Bletchley Park, in rural Buckinghamshire, England, was the estate that became the World War II headquarters for the Government Code & Cypher School, where British experts deciphered German communications, including those encrypted by the Enigma coding machine. UK journalist McKay presents a sociological history of the scientists, engineers, and other academics ("boffins") thrown together at Bletchley Park with debutantes and ordinary workers, all with a common goal. McKay draws on oral histories and interviews with those who were there to present stories of culture conflict, intense pressure and arguments, off-duty life, cramped working and living conditions, and relatively lax recruitment and security procedures. He also touches on administrative battles over funds and staffing, particularly for the women who kept the complicated organization running smoothly. This conglomeration of characters produced vital military intelligence for the Allies, while also, in the person of men like Alan Turing, laying foundation stones for the field of computer science. VERDICT An enjoyable book for aficionados of intelligence history or the human aspect of the critical work recounted in F.W. Hinsley and A. Stripp's Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park.-Daniel K. Blewett, Coll. of DuPage Lib., Glen Ellyn, IL (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A detailed, well-researched account of the people who ran the top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, whose work helped the Allies win World War II. President Eisenhower once said that the work of the British codebreakers "shortened the war by two years." But as Daily Telegraph journalist McKay (Ramble On, 2012, etc) reveals, official recognition has been slow in coming. Some of the participants--e.g., celebrated Cambridge mathematician Alan Turing, would go on to earn notoriety, including official, but always muted, recognition by the British monarchy. Most would go on to lead more or less anonymous lives. McKay notes that a large part of the problem had to do with the fact that, unlike those who had actually fought on the front lines, no one from GCCS "was allowed to say a single word" about the years they spent deciphering the infamous German Enigma codes. Only after RAF officer and MI6 operative Frederick Winterbotham published a controversial book about the project in 1974, The Ultra Secret, did the veil begin to lift. Rather than attempt to glamorize what the codebreakers did, however, McKay attempts to demystify their world by highlighting the day-to-day realities they faced. With few exceptions, aristocrats mixed with academics, students and factory workers shared the same hardships: small, cramped billets, tasteless food and jobs that were as tedious as they were physically and mentally taxing. Interviews with surviving Bletchley Park veterans offer especially good insight into the remarkably vibrant culture and the ways they survived an invisible, hyperconfined existence on the edge of a world at war. A well-deserved, long-overdue celebration of some unsung heroes of WWII.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
