The Lost World of Bletchley Park: The Illustrated History of the Wartime Codebreaking Centre

Description

The huge success of Sinclair’s The Secret Life of Bletchley Park – a quarter of a million copies sold to date – has been symptomatic of a similarly dramatic increase in visitors to Bletchley Park itself, the Victorian mansion in Buckinghamshire now open as an engrossing museum of wartime codebreaking. Aurum is publishing the first comprehensive illustrated history of this remarkable place, from its prewar heyday as a country estate under the Liberal MP Sir Herbert Leon, through its wartime requisition with the addition of the famous huts within the grounds, from the place where modern computing was invented and the German Enigma code was cracked, to its post-war dereliction and then rescue towards the end of the twentieth century as a museum whose visitor numbers have more than doubled in the last five years. Featuring over 200 photographs, some previously unseen, and text by Sinclair McKay, this will be an essential purchase for everyone interested in the place where codebreaking helped to win the war. ** Front Cover ......Page 1 IFC ......Page 2 Front Page......Page 4 CONTENTS......Page 6 INTRODUCTION......Page 8 Chapter One THE HOUSE AND GROUNDS......Page 15 Chapter Two CONVERSION TO CODEBREAKING FACTORY......Page 28 Chapter Three THE CRYPTOLOGISTS......Page 41 Chapter Four THE GIRLS, THE PEARLS AND THE MUSICAL SERGEANTS......Page 52 Chapter Five THE MACHINES THAT CHANGED THE FUTURE......Page 63 Chapter Six OFF-DUTY HOURS AND THE PRESSURE VALVES......Page 76 Chapter Seven BLETCHLEY THE WARTIME TOWN......Page 88 Chapter Eight THE WORLDWIDE LISTENERS......Page 98 Chapter Nine BLETCHLEY PARK'S FAMOUS FACES......Page 109 Chapter Ten BROKEN CODES AND THE COURSE OF HISTORY......Page 120 Chapter Eleven WHAT THE CODEBREAKERS DID NEXT......Page 133 Chapter Twelve BLETCHLEY AFTER THE WAR......Page 143 Chapter Thirteen RESCUE AND RENOVATION......Page 151 Chapter Fourteen ROYALS, DIGNITARIES - AND JAMES BOND......Page 160 Copyright......Page 173 Rear Cover......Page 174