Book review: Bletchley Park: The Secret Archives

JOE PUBLIC gets a whistlestop tour behind the scenes of Britain’s Second World War code-breaking nerve centre in this official history. 

Sinclair McKay

Aurum Press, €38.75

It is less an examination of the top secret work than an introduction to the place and the people who made the magic happen, and how they lived their covert lives.

It takes in the transformation of the park from pre-war society destination to a vital espionage hub wreathed in secrecy (which carried on for decades) as it broke Axis codes and played a vital role in Allied victory.

The book is at its best when it describes the human collision of Oxbridge classicists, introverted mathematicians, society debutantes and ordinary servicemen and women brought together in what is now a nondescript suburb of Milton Keynes in England.

The story is not told through Alan Turing-tinted glasses, introducing a wide range of people working at the Park and also those living around it, who were totally kept in the dark.