The Turing Guide

Reviews / Votes

The Turing Guide has opened up a universe of Turing's other pursuits I knew nothing about, inflating my admiration for him and his work by several orders of magnitude. I doubt that there exists a more complete book about Turing's life and work. A towering figure in the history of computing, but also in history itself, we come to know Turing with a completeness unattained by any preceding work. * Vint Cerf, Physics World * This is a welcome addition to the existing generally accessible literature that gives additional testimony of the brilliant mind of Alan Turing. There is historical as well as technical material that will be appreciated also by specialists whatever their discipline: history, mathematics, biology, computer science, or philosophy. * Adhemar Bultheel, The European Mathematical Society * A handful of the guide's 33 contributors worked at Bletchley and knew Turing personally. Their reminiscences can be fascinating, funny, even moving. ... But it is, I think, pretty much the last word on the subject. And it will ensure that while we may never decode the whole of Turing's mind, his name will never again be forgotten. * Andrew Robinson, New Scientist * ...extremely informative, highly readable, and well produced with many photographs and useful figures to aid exposition. The preface states the book was 'written for general readers, and Turing's scientific and mathematical concepts are explained in an accessible way'. This has been achieved with great success. However, those working in a range of fields will also benefit a lot from articles written by experts and pointers to the extended literature. * David Glass, London Mathematical Society * The Turing Guide is an important and valuable contribution to our understanding of an extraordinary scientist and the profound and lasting resonances of his work. The essays are deeply researched, well written, and cogently argued, and the book itself is beautifully produced and amply illustrated. * Ernest Davis, SIAM News * Splendidly produced and lavishly illustrated with photographs, drawings and diagrams, the volume is a valuable source not only of high-level, in-depth, wide-ranging articles but also of rare primary sources from the crucial period in the history of science. * Carla Petrocelli, Nunicus * Offers new perspectives, many photos not in the larger volume, and even new topics for consideration, such as one essay titled "Turing and the Paranormal". It is a welcome addition to the Turing literature... Highly recommended. * , , CHOICE * With 'The Turing Guide', Oxford University Press has struck the right formula. Breaking the story into several sections allows readers to cherry-pick the bits that are of interest to them, either running through from start to finish or sticking to the biographical chapters and using the pointers to sections which go into more technical depth as they wish. * Dominic Lenton, E&T Magazine * "excellent compendium of essays" * Tom Schulte, MAA Reviews * ...a superb collection of articles written from numerous different perspectives, of the life, times, profound ideas, and enormous heritage of Alan Turing and those around him. We find, here, numerous accounts, both personal and historical, of this great and eccentric man, whose life was both tragic and triumphantly influential. * Sir Roger Penrose, Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics, the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford * An excellent compendium of essays covering Alan Turing's life and work, covering everything from his childhood to his final days, from the universal machine to cracking the Enigma, from artificial intelligence to morphogenesis. * Simon Singh, author of Fermat's Last Theorem and The Code Book * There is excellent material on the various aspects of Alan Turing's wide range of contributions I recommend The Turing Guide * Cliff B. Jones, Formal Aspects of Computing *