Secrets at Bletchley Park

Author: Margaret Dickinson
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1529018528
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Book Description
In Secrets at Bletchley Park by Margaret Dickinson, two young women from very different backgrounds meet in the Second World War and are plunged into a life where security and discretion are paramount. But both have secrets of their own to hide . . . In 1929, life for ten-year-old Mattie Price, born and raised in the back streets of Sheffield, is tough. With a petty thief for a father and a mother who turns to the bottle to cope with her husband’s brutish ways, it is left to the young girl and her brother, Joe, to feed and care for their three younger siblings. But Mattie has others rooting for her too. The Spencer family, who live at the top of the same street, and Mattie’s teachers recognize that the girl is clever beyond her years and they, and Joe, are determined that she shall have the opportunity in life she deserves. Victoria Hamilton, living in the opulence of London’s Kensington, has all the material possessions that a young girl could want. But her mother, Grace, a widow from the Great War, is cold and distant, making no secret of the fact that she never wanted a child. Grace lives her life in the social whirl of upper-class society, leaving Victoria in the care of her governess and the servants. At eleven years old, Victoria is sent to boarding school where, for the first time in her young life, she is able to make friends of her own age. Mattie and Victoria are both set on a path that will bring them together at Bletchley Park in May 1940. An unlikely friendship between the two young women is born and together they will face the rest of the war keeping the nation’s secrets and helping to win the fight. They can tell no one, not even their families, about their work or even where they are. But keeping secrets is second nature to both of them . . .

The Secret Life of Bletchley Park

Author: Sinclair McKay
Publisher: Aurum
ISBN: 1845136837
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
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.

Summer Secrets at Bletchley Park (The Bletchley Park Girls, Book 1)

Author: Molly Green
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0008479887
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 423

Book Description
‘One hell of a journey...a great curl up and read book’ Reader Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Outstandingly fabulous’ Reader Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Had me going to bed early just so that I could listen to it!’ Reader Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Will helping the war effort help mend her broken heart?

Codebreaker Girls

Author: Jan Slimming
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1526784122
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 431

Book Description
“What would it be like to keep a secret for fifty years? Never telling your parents, your children, or even your husband?” Codebreaker Girls: A Secret Life at Bletchley Park tells the true story of Daisy Lawrence. Following extensive research, the author uses snippets of information, unpublished photographs and her own recollections to describe scenes from her mother’s poor, but happy, upbringing in London, and the disruptions caused by the outbreak of the Second World War to a young woman in the prime of her life. The author asks why, and how, Daisy was chosen to work at the Government war station, as well as the clandestine operation she experienced with others, deep in the British countryside, during a time when the effects of the war were felt by everyone. In addition, the author examines her mother’s personal emotions and relationships as she searches for her young fiancée, who was missing in action overseas. The three years at Bletchley Park were Daisy’s university, but having closed the door in 1945 on her hidden role of national importance — dealing with Germany, Italy and Japan — this significant period in her life was camouflaged for decades in the filing cabinet of her mind. Now her story comes alive with descriptions, original letters, documents, newspaper cuttings and unique photographs, together with a rare and powerful account of what happened to her after the war. “Here’s a beauty of a history of some of the codebreaking girls who helped save us during the second world war. This one’s about Daisy Lawrence’s extraordinary life as a poor girl brought up in London and then chosen for top secret work at Bletchley Park. Reads like fiction.” —Books Monthly

Colossus

Author: B. Jack Copeland
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199578141
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 495

Book Description
With an introductory essay on cryptography and the history of code-breaking by Simon Singh, this book reveals the workings of Colossus and the extraordinary staff at Bletchley Park through personal accounts by those who lived and worked with the computer.

Codebreakers

Author: Francis Harry Hinsley
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780192801326
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Book Description
The story of Bletchley Park, the successful intelligence operation that cracked Germany's Enigma Code. Photos.

Station X

Author: Michael Smith
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9780330419291
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
In 1939, several hundred people - students, professors, international chess players, officers, actresses and debutantes - reported to a Victorian mansion in Buckinghamshire: Bletchley Park, known as 'Station X', where enemy codes were deciphered. This title details their remarkable achievements.

Bletchley Park's Secret Source

Author: Peter Hore
Publisher: Greenhill Books
ISBN: 1784385824
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Book Description
A captivating history of the highly secret group of women who helped win the Second World War. The World War II codebreaking station at Bletchley is well known and its activities documented in detail. Its decryption capabilities were vital to the war effort, significantly aiding Allied victory. But where did the messages being deciphered come from in the first place? This is the extraordinary untold story of the Y-Service, a secret even more closely guarded than Bletchley Park. The Y-Service was the code for the chain of wireless intercept stations around Britain and all over the world. Hundreds of wireless operators, many of them who were civilians, listened to German, Italian and Japanese radio networks and meticulously logged everything they heard. Some messages were then used tactically but most were sent on to Station X—Bletchley Park—where they were deciphered, translated and consolidated to build a comprehensive overview of the enemy’s movements and intentions. Peter Hore delves into the fascinating history of the Y-service, with particular reference to the girls of the Women’s Royal Naval Service: Wrens who escaped from Singapore to Colombo as the war raged, only to be torpedoed in the Atlantic on their way back to Britain; the woman who had a devastatingly true premonition that disaster would strike on her way to Gibraltar; the Australian who went from being captain of the English Women’s Cricket team to a WWII Wren to the head of Abbotleigh girls school in Sydney; how the Y-service helped to hunt the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic, and how it helped to torpedo a Japanese cruiser in the Indian Ocean. Together, these incredible stories build a picture of World War II as it has never been viewed before. “We get to see how the work of individual Wrens helped in such operations as the interception and sinking of the Bismarck, the Slapton Sands disaster, several naval battles (Channel Dash, Matapan, etc.), the ongoing small warship clashes in coastal waters, convoy defense, and more. A good read for anyone interested in the naval side of the war in Europe or in the role of women in military service.” —The NYMAS Review “Will reward a patient reader with a remarkably intimate view into the lives and times of these hidden heroes.” —Naval Historical Foundation

My Secret Life in Hut Six

Author: Mair Russell-Jones
Publisher: Lion Books
ISBN: 0745956653
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
The story of the World War 2 de-coders of Bletchley Park continues to fascinate. How did Mair Thomas, a musician brought up in the Welsh valleys, find herself in the rarefied atmosphere of Hut Six, surrounded by hundreds of others, all desperately trying to break the German Enigma Code? Sworn to secrecy and working in cramped and uncomfortable conditions, Mair discovered her degree in German and Music was just what was needed. Drawn from the public schools and Oxbridge her background was very different to that of most of her colleagues and she didn't immediately fit in. This captivating memoir unpacks her daily life and explores the relationships she built. My Secret Life in Hut Six provides a fascinating insight into one woman's battle against Nazi Germany vividly capturing an era of danger, strain and day to day difficulties that were brightened occasionally by visits from the top brass, such as Winston Churchill.

Secret Postings

Author: Charlotte Webb
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780955716478
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 134

Book Description
At 18 years of age Charlotte Vine-Stevens leaves college and volunteers for the ATS, the Womens's Army. After basic training she is given a travel warrant and instructions to go to Bletchley Station. Between 1941 and 1945 Charlotte finds herself stationed at the Government Code & Cypher school's codebreaking operation at Bletchley Park. After working with Major Ralph Tester in the Mansion, she moves to the Japanese Section in Block F to paraphrase deciphered Japanese messages. In 1945 this work leads Carlotte to see out the war in the Pacific at The Pentagon. Secret Postings follows Charlotte's life from a childhood in rural Shropshire, to a turbulent pre-war Germany, a World War 2 adventure at Bletchley Park, The Pentagon and beyond.