“Enigma’s ‘forgotten genius’ . . . [the] story of Alan Turing’s spymaster boss who led the team that cracked Hitler’s WWII codes” (Daily Mail). The Official Secrets Act and the passing of time have prevented the Bletchley Park story from being told by many of its key participants. Here at last is a book that allows some of them to speak for the first time. Gordon Welchman was one of the Park’s most important figures. Like Alan Turing, his pioneering work was fundamental to the success of Bletchley Park and helped pave the way for the birth of the digital age. Yet, his story is largely unknown to many. His book, The Hut Six Story, was the first to reveal not only how they broke the codes, but how it was done on an industrial scale. Its publication created such a stir in GCHQ and the NSA that Welchman was forbidden to discuss the book or his wartime work with the media. In order to finally set the record straight, Bletchley Park historian and tour guide Joel Greenberg has drawn on Welchman’s personal papers and correspondence with wartime colleagues that lay undisturbed in his son’s loft for many years. Packed with fascinating new insights, including Welchman’s thoughts on key Bletchley figures and the development of the bombe machine, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the clandestine activities at Bletchley Park. “A magnificent biography which finally provides recognition to one of Bletchley’s and Britain’s lost heroes.” —Michael Smith “Reveals a man equally as fascinating equally as important as Turing, and tells us even more about what went on in this most secret of establishments during the war years.” —Books Monthly

West traces the origins of British signals intelligence and details developments up to the present. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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.

December, 1932 In the bathroom of a Belgian hotel, a French spymaster photographs top-secret documents – the operating instructions of the cipher machine, Enigma. A few weeks later a mathematician in Warsaw begins to decipher the coded communications of the Third Reich and lays the foundations for the code-breaking operation at Bletchley Park. The co-operation between France, Britain and Poland is given the cover-name 'X, Y & Z'. December, 1942 It is the middle of World War Two. The Polish code-breakers have risked their lives to continue their work inside Vichy France, even as an uncertain future faces their homeland. Now they are on the run from the Gestapo. People who know the Enigma secret are not supposed to be in the combat zone, so MI6 devises a plan to exfiltrate them. If it goes wrong, if they are caught, the consequences could be catastrophic for the Allies. Based on original research and newly released documents, X, Y & Z is the exhilarating story of those who risked their lives to protect the greatest secret of World War Two.

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

“The expertly researched biography of the man who created and led the British intelligence organization best known for cracking the Nazi’s codes.” —Midwest Book Review Some of the individuals who played key roles in the success of Bletchley Park in reading the secret communications of Britain’s enemies during the Second World War have become well-known figures. However, the man who created and led the organization based there, from its inception in 1919 until 1942, has, surprisingly, been overlooked—until now. In 1914 Alastair Denniston, who had been teaching French and German at Osborne Royal Navy College, was one of the first recruits into the Admiralty’s fledgling codebreaking section that became known as Room 40. There, a team drawn from a wide range of professions successfully decrypted intercepted German communications throughout the First World War. After the Armistice, Room 40 was merged with the British Army’s equivalent section—MI1—to form the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS). Initially based in London, from August 1939, GC&CS was largely located at Bletchley Park, with Alastair Denniston as its Operational Director. With the support and assistance of both the Denniston family and GCHQ, Joel Greenberg, author of Gordon Welchman: Bletchley Park’s Architect of Ultra Intelligence, has produced this absorbing story of Commander Alexander “Alastair” Guthrie Denniston OBE, CBE, CMG, RNVR, a man whose death in 1961 was ignored by major newspapers and the very British intelligence organization that was his legacy. “An enthralling account of Alastair Denniston and his contribution to modern electronic intelligence. This book follows from his excellent biography of another great of signals intelligence, Gordon Welshman.” —Fire Reviews

The Bletchley Park memoir of Lord Asa Briggs will be one of the most important documents to be published in 2010. Lord Briggs has long been regarded as one of Britain's most important historians. He has never, however, written about his time at Bletchley Park. The publication, which coincided with Lord Briggs 90th birthday, is a meticulously researched account of life in Hut Six, written by a codebreaker who worked there for five years alongside Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman. In addition to discussing the progress of the Allies' code-breaking efforts and their impact on the war, Lord Briggs considers what the Germans knew about Bletchley and how they reacted to revelatory memoirs about the Enigma machine which were not published until the 1970s. Briggs himself did not tell his wife about his wartime career until the 1970s and his parents died without ever knowing their son's contribution to the wartime effort.