Writing from year after gross indecency arrest challenges âisolated mathematicianâ image, says Cambridge academic
The Cambridge University English literature professor Sarah Dillon has transcribed and studied a little-known short story that Turing wrote in the year after his arrest in Manchester for gross indecency. Her conclusion challenges the popular understanding of Turing as an âisolated mathematicianâ. The short story, she said, shone light on a man who loved literature, was enjoying life and was not ashamed of his sexuality. âI hope it will go some way towards resetting the narrative around Turing,â she said. âWe think we know this figure and we donât. There was more to him than is popularly believed.â ⌠The story suggests Turing was a lot happier about life than might be assumed. It is also known that his 1952 summer holiday was in socially tolerant Norway, where he had liaisons. âHis sexual spirit was not dampened by what happened to him,â Dillon said. Her findings are published in the Review of English Studies and she hopes it will provide a fresh insight into a misunderstood genius. âHeâs come to be seen as socially unaware, entirely concerned with logic and numbers, and pretty isolated. His short story reveals a very different man: playful, funny, cheeky, literary, and someone who really liked sex.â
