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Product Description
The Bletchley Park memoir of Lord Asa Briggs will be one of the most important documents to be published in 2011. 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 will coincide 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 codebreaking 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 about their son s contribution to the wartime effort. The book will be launched at Bletchley in May 2011, in the presence of other Hut 6 veterans and part of the proceeds will be donated to the fund to restore Hut 6 to its former glory.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
By writing about the people at Bletchley, Asa Briggs has brought it to life and made it all the more extraordinary and interesting. This is a wonderful account of life there with a historian's perspective of who really did what. I thought there was nothing left to know about Bletchley, having read so many other books about it, but this one is different. I heartily recommend it. How lucky we were having such brilliant minds, as well as brave hearts, to defeat the Nazis. Christopher Ward
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Whilst Briggs sets out his three objectives in a long rambling introduction, I am afraid this book fails on all accounts. Firstly, his personal memoirs are very sketchy. I cannot believe that so many intelligent and sometimes eccentric young people didn't have any fun. We are shown am-dram programmes,dance tickets etc but nothing to put any bones on the relics. Secondly, his reviews of the books written about Bletchley (BP) are almost limited to a list. I suppose that is OK if one is looking for sources for research, but since I was hoping for objective, short, pithy reviews once again it failed. As to answering the final objective as to why historians were of use at BP, since I was not given even the sketchiest idea of what he was doing, that failed too. Nor did I learn to what extent the role of BP either exceeded or supplemented that of other intelligence gathering activities. I expected that of a renowned historian. I kept turning the pages in the hope that I would find something new, fascinating, interesting or amusing. What I did find was how many men and women who went on to hold high positions in most walks of life were based at BP for some time in the war. But again, there was so little about them as people rather than post holders after the war that this became more akin to name-dropping. Finally, my partner - a mathematician and physicist - gave up after chapter one.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have read Asa Briggs for many years, and also am keen an the subject of Intelligence and 'the Enigma story'. I snapped this book up and read it over a couple of evenings. The book is worthy, but takes some time to warm-up. The introduction does provide a useful overview of the literature relating to Bletchley Park (BP), but the first chapter is rather dry in its exploration of Oxbridge entrants to BP. However, the book gets going when Briggs places himself at the centre of the action and the reader gets a wonderfully colourful view of life in Hut Six and the characters that inhabited it. In summary, all the component parts are here for a really fine read, but the final product is all rather arid in parts.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Don't buy it!
The reputation of Asa Briggs, as distinguished historian and academic, persuaded me to buy this book and ignore the critical reviews. Read more
Published 24 days ago by Roger Stimson
Very Disappointed.
I have recently completed this 'historical' account by Asa Briggs, which I purchased with much optimism. Read more
Published 25 days ago by Jimix
Nothing more than a namedropfest
If you want to learn about how codes and ciphers were broken at Bletchley, don't go anywhere near this book. Asa Brigg's title is a complete misnoner. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Rob Davis
Out and around Bletchley Park: a few of Asa Briggs Wartime Secrets
In fact or fiction admiring readers always await with interest for the new arrival of their favourite writer. Read more
Published 7 months ago by mangilli-climpson m
Important piece of work
Thoroughly enjoyed this memoir of Asa Briggs life at Bletchley. It definitely adds something new to this relatively new historical area. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Budgie
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