Alan Turing and the Enigma Code
Secrets, Lies and Myths of Bletchley Park in World War II
Joel Greenberg(Author)
Greenhill Books (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 30. September 2026
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-80500-222-2 (ISBN)
Description
Over the years, early accounts of the codebreaking work undertaken at Bletchley Park during the Second World War contained many factual errors. This was only natural: many of the authors of these accounts were veterans who did not have access to official records. They had to rely solely on their own recollection of events that had transpired more than thirty years prior.
As rules were relaxed, more Bletchley Park veterans wrote their own accounts. Some historians documenting the history of British intelligence during World War II repeated some of the more apocryphal stories. These gradually became part of the mythology surrounding Bletchley Park in print media, as well as in both stage and film productions on the subject over the years - until now.
In Alan Turing and the Enigma Code: Secrets, Lies and Myths of Bletchley Park in World War II, Joel Greenberg has handpicked twenty of the most common myths associated with Bletchley Park during World War II (for example, the myth that thousands of pigeons were used at Bletchley Park to carry secret messages to British forces in France).
In incredible detail, the origin of each myth is described, alongside the inaccuracies, secrets and sometimes even lies that have sustained it over the years, before revealing the truth behind each one. This is a wholly unique look at Bletchley Park: no other book on the subject tells its story in this way, and it will be of great interest to anyone interested in the world of intelligence work carried out during World War II.
As rules were relaxed, more Bletchley Park veterans wrote their own accounts. Some historians documenting the history of British intelligence during World War II repeated some of the more apocryphal stories. These gradually became part of the mythology surrounding Bletchley Park in print media, as well as in both stage and film productions on the subject over the years - until now.
In Alan Turing and the Enigma Code: Secrets, Lies and Myths of Bletchley Park in World War II, Joel Greenberg has handpicked twenty of the most common myths associated with Bletchley Park during World War II (for example, the myth that thousands of pigeons were used at Bletchley Park to carry secret messages to British forces in France).
In incredible detail, the origin of each myth is described, alongside the inaccuracies, secrets and sometimes even lies that have sustained it over the years, before revealing the truth behind each one. This is a wholly unique look at Bletchley Park: no other book on the subject tells its story in this way, and it will be of great interest to anyone interested in the world of intelligence work carried out during World War II.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-80500-222-2 (9781805002222)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Joel Greenberg is a Canadian author and historian living in the UK who researches and writes about signals intelligence and its impact on two world wars. He is has written the authorised biographies of two key figures in the story of signals intelligence, Gordon Welchman and Alastair Denniston. The Welchman book, Gordon Welchman, Bletchley Park's Architect of Ultra Intelligence, is the basis of a joint BBC/Smithsonian Network 2015 documentary about Welchman -The Forgotten Genius of Bletchley Park.. The Denniston book, Alastair Denniston, Code-breaking from Room 40 to Berkeley Street and the Birth of GCHQ, is both a biography and an account of signals intelligence from its early development to the birth of GCHQ. Denniston was the first Head of GCHQ and the book was launched at its headquarters on 7 September 2017 in honour of him.