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| FEATURED BOOK |
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The Secret Life of Bletchley Park
Until the mid-seventies Bletchley Park remained a secret.
At a rambling Victorian house in the Buckinghamshire countryside, thousands of young people decoded and translated intercepted messages, whilst some of Britain’s most brilliant minds effectively invented modern computing. Their greatest collective achievement was the cracking of the Enigma code. The intelligence gained was instrumental in turning both the Battle of Britain and the war in North Africa, and, according to official historians, their efforts shortened the war by at least two years.
But no-one talked about it.
All had signed the Official Secrets Act, and everyone kept their word. Only recently have the last surviving veterans told their remarkable story.
Now, through dozens of new interviews, Sinclair McKay reveals what life was like for the men and women who worked at Bletchley Park, trapped in an odd, secret territory somewhere between civilian and military. It’s an amazing compendium of memories – of portentous arrival at a gloomy railway station in the dead of night; of eccentric geniuses like Alan Turing who solved astonishing intellectual problems; of gruelling night shifts, exhilarating dances, ardent romances sealed down peaceful country lanes – and, above all, of the implacable secrecy that meant that married couples working in adjacent huts knew nothing of each other’s work, even decades after the end of the war.
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| FEATURED AUTHOR |
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Warwick Davis
“Hi! Believe it or not, I’m a world famous actor. No really, I am. Hey! Don’t put the book back! Let me explain . . .
You may not recognise my name – or my face for that matter – but it’s very likely you’ve seen me at work. I’ve managed to cram quite a bit into my thirty-year acting career. In fact I’ve helped put more bums on cinema seats than Will Smith or Tom Hanks.
Who else can say that they’ve helped destroy a Death Star? Taught magic to Harry Potter? Reluctantly hitchhiked across the galaxy in search of the answer to the Ultimate Question? Or embarked (six times, no less) on a psychotic killing spree as a gold-obsessed leprechaun? I’ve also performed in a jazz club with the late, great Ray Charles, been kicked in the head by Ricky Gervais (twenty-three times) and successfully navigated the Peterborough one-way system on more than one occasion.
You may also have noticed that, at three-foot-six, I am ever so slightly below average height. My genes are arranged in a vaguely peculiar manner, which means I have a disorder that no one can pronounce (spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita – go on, try!) and very few people understand. This has thrown up its own trials and tribulations – particularly when my wife and I tried to start a family – but also in an everyday kind of way – surviving a supermarket shopping trip, getting into fights with drunks, that sort of thing.
So, without further preamble – except to add that George Lucas, Carrie Fisher, Val Kilmer, Ron Howard, Ricky Gervais (amongst others) have chipped in – I urge you, discerning reader, to read on and discover what life is like when it really is too short.
At the very least, George Lucas will finally explain why there really is no underwear in space – and who wouldn’t want to know that?” - Warwick A. Davis
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Sucker Punch
Aurum author and ex-boxer Errol Christie has been training the actors of hit Royal Court play Sucker Punch. The play, which runs until the end of July, looks back on what it was like to be young and Black in the 80s and asks if the right battles have been fought, let alone won. Errol Christie's brilliant autobiography 'No Place to Hide' shares similar subject matter. For tickets visit www.royalcourttheatre.com.
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