Audio Spotlight: ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA


In these strange and difficult times, we thought it might be nice to offer some audiobook recommendations (to go along with your other books). Today, we’re starting with some non-fiction: Andrew Hodges‘s acclaimed biography ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA, which is published by Audible. Here’s the synopsis…

Alan Turing was the mathematician whose cipher-cracking transformed the Second World War. Taken on by British Intelligence in 1938, as a shy young Cambridge don, he combined brilliant logic with a flair for engineering. In 1940 his machines were breaking the Enigma-enciphered messages of Nazi Germany’s air force. He then headed the penetration of the super-secure U-boat communications.

But his vision went far beyond this achievement. Before the war he had invented the concept of the universal machine, and in 1945 he turned this into the first design for a digital computer.

Turing’s far-sighted plans for the digital era forged ahead into a vision for Artificial Intelligence. However, in 1952 his homosexuality rendered him a criminal and he was subjected to humiliating treatment. In 1954, aged 41, Alan Turing took his own life.

The book was the basis for the Oscar-winning movie The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kiera Knightley. The print and eBook editions of the book are published by Vintage (UK), Princeton University Press (North America) and widely in translation.

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