Laura here about to review The Secret Life of Bletchley Park! I know what you are thinking, the history nerd chose a history book first. Which, technically yes, is true. tSLoBP is a book about historical stuff. And yes it is a non fiction book. But my gods, the stories.
Firstly a disclaimer. I am from Milton Keynes. It’s shocking, I know, it’s not something people like to admit freely. But I swear, the only thing that people from Milton Keynes have to be proud of is Bletchley Park. And I am fucking proud. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Bletchley Park was a secret government facility in World War 2 dedicated to cracking Nazi codes. Work at Bletchley Park was top secret. No-one who worked there could talk about what they did, but the work there was credited with shortening the war by at least 2 years and also for the birth of one of the world’s first computers. The BP files were declassified in the 1970s but even afterwards, many of the veterans refused to discuss what they did at the park.
The book is essentially made up of snippets of interviews with BP veterans, as well as letters and diaries and so on, and rather than focusing on the codes themselves, the book focuses on the lives of the people working there. That is not to say there is no information about the code breaking process, it’s just more of a social history than a military one. Those of you familiar with the Nazi Enigma Codes or Benedict Cumberbatch (Imitation Game, what ho!) may well recognise the more familiar names and stories of Alan Turing and Dilly Knox, and whilst these stories are valuable and interesting, they kind of take second string to the stories of more ordinary people working there. The young girls working for the post office, the students recruited straight from Oxbridge, and wrens sent to BP at the peak of the war. None of them knew what they were there to do, and at the time none of them knew the impact of the work they were doing.
The book is really good for giving a real slice of life look at BP, and shows how even in the most serious of jobs, wartime wasn’t all doom and gloom. Its so wonderfully of its time, with all the talk of debutantes, dance halls and afternoon tea, romances and music and truly shows the “all pull together” spirit of the war. High Society ‘gels’ working alongside working class lasses, everyone dealing with the same challenges of secrecy and ration food!
The writing style is really engaging, so its not a straight up dry history book. It doesn’t get bogged down in dates and events but focuses more on feelings. The chapters are short so it makes a great book to read if you work in a job where you have lots of short breaks (anyone else a market researcher?) or find it difficult to focus on reading for long periods of time. Plus if you find yourself in Milton Keynes, lord knows why you would be, you can visit BP itself, the house and grounds remain relatively unchanged since the war (beware of the odd unexploded bomb!) and they have rebuilt the bombe machines used to decrypt enigma. The museum portion of the park is incredible, and it is staffed largely by veterans who want to tell their stories - you will meet some of the people who’s names are mentioned in the book - and if you visit before the end of September there is an additional exhibition with costumes and props from Imitation Game, which was partially filmed at the park. Its great value for money too because the tickets are all annual passes, and they have great events on throughout the year!
