There is much more in this book that fleshes out the work at Bletchley, the people who were assigned there, and the almost impossible pressure under which they worked. I highly recommend this book.

As we approach the 75th anniversary of VE Day, it’s timely (although a coincidence) that I’ve read a book which explores the contribution and enduring legacy of the people who saw out the war at Bletchley Park.

The Secret Lives of Codebreakers is an incredibly personal book, featuring as it does interviews with the people who actually worked there. You get a vivid impression of what it was like to be working on crucial codes and ciphers, maintaining and air of secrecy, but also of being young people living through a war.

There is the potential for this sort of book to be very dry but, although it touches on some of the technological features of Bletchley’s work, and the advances in computing that came out of it, it focuses more fully on the human stories, which I really enjoyed.

It seems unfathomable these days that you could be eighteen or nineteen years old, and be serving your country, living far away from your home but not able to tell anyone about it. This is what struck me most about the reminiscences – the fact that many of the veterans of Bletchley Park were never able to even tell their parents or spouses of what they had done in the war.

Thankfully, more and more of what went on at Bletchley, and the life-saving work they did there, is coming out and is represented by the Bletchley Park Trust – you can even visit Bletchley Park now, as it’s a popular museum, and see recreations of the conditions there and some of the technologies used during the war.

This book is an excellent contribution to the many books written about Bletchley, and if you want to approach the more personal aspects of this incredible story, it’s highly recommended.

I see this is on my shelf from 2012, but I must have missed it. Sorry, I did not read or review it and my reading rights expired long ago. Thank you anyway for giving me the opportunity.

Fascinating insight into those men and women who lived and worked at Bletchley Park during WWII.