Author:Andrew Hodges
The official book behind the Academy Award-winning film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley
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.
One of the finest scientific biographies I’ve ever read: authoritative, superbly researched, deeply sympathetic and beautifully told
—— Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful MindAndrew Hodges' book is of exemplary scholarship and sympathy. Intimate, perceptive and insightful, it’s also the most readable biography I’ve picked up in some time
—— Time OutA first-rate presentation of the life of a first-rate scientific mind
—— New York Times Book ReviewOne of the finest scientific biographies ever written
—— New YorkerA first-rate presentation of the life of a first-rate scientific mind…it is hard to imagine a more thoughtful and warm biography than this one
—— Douglas Hofstadter , New York Times Book ReviewAndrew Hodge’s book is of exemplary scholarship and sympathy. Intimate, perceptive and insightful, it’s also the most readable biography I’ve picked up in some time
—— Time OutSave your money for the forthcoming new edition of Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges, regarded by many as one of the greatest biographies of anyone, let along Turing
—— Robert Matthews , BBC Focus MagazineThis book stands the test of time. It is a labour of love…compelling
—— Energy and TechnologyAuthoritative biography
—— BBC onlineHodges's biography is sensitive, sympathetic and uncompromisingly intellectual. The maths is extremely hard work – but helps the lay reader to appreciate the scale of Turing's achievements
—— Brandon Robsaw , Independent on SundayA rich and fascinating portrait of a genius whose life was tragically ended before its time
—— Gay TimesAuthoritative, wide-ranging and thoroughly readable.
—— Adrian Weale , Literary ReviewThe Good War…can feel one step away from the action but is no less compelling or valuable. His is a chronology of a war of our time; it holds one’s attention and he has done his research.
—— Lyse Doucet , New StatesmanThis year saw one of the most audacious biographies I can remember reading: Ruth Scurr's John Aubrey: My Own Life... What we are presented with is a wonderful artificial composite: a fascinating patchwork made up of extracts from Aubrey's notebooks, journals and letters, chronologically rearranged with consummate editorial and novelistic artfulness by Scurr. The result is haunting, memorable and, in the field of non-fiction, unprecedented.
—— William Boyd , TLS, Books of the YearScurr wrote the biography Aubrey didn't write - Aubrey's own - in a biographical form that is unique, new and gripping
—— AS Byatt , TLS, Books of the YearFor me, the academic historian, Scurr’s experimental “act of scholarly imagination” has already modified significantly my own historical understanding
—— Lisa Jardine , Financial TimesThe marriage of [Aubrey’s] words and Scurr’s is so smoothly achieved that I have no idea where one leaves off and the other intervenes
—— Allan Massie , ScotsmanScurr’s imaginative feat of retrieval has produced a perfect book for dipping into when you want a taste of what it was like to be alive in the 17th century
—— John Carey , Sunday TimesIt is a testament to [Scurr’s] skill that you quickly stop thinking about technique and instead slip happily into the company of the character she has created. The wealth of research and the seams between imagination and reality disappear from view. This is truly selfless biography
—— Daisy Hay, 5 stars , Daily TelegraphA game-changer in the world of biography
—— Mary Beard , GuardianA delightful read about the ebb and flow of thoughts in one extraordinary man’s mind
—— Claire Harman , Evening StandardDrawing on [Aubrey’s] manuscripts and letters, [Ruth Scurr] has fashioned, as chronologically as possible, an autobiography in the form of the diary that Aubrey never wrote. It fits him perfectly… Ms Scurr has done him proud
—— The EconomistAubrey was a delightful, self-deprecating man ... A conventional biography of Aubrey could easily have become a portrait of the time through which he had lived, allowing the man himself to be overshadowed ... Instead, Ruth Scurr has invented the diary Aubrey might have written, incorporating his own chaotic, sometimes scrappy literary remains to form a continuous narrative. ... lucky him to have been accorded a biography as whimsical as his own self
—— Clive Aslet , Country LifeScurr’s book illuminates and poignantly captures the voice of a man more often a “ghostly record keeper” in his own writing
—— Carl Wilkinson , Financial TimesJohn Aubrey brilliantly reconfigures the art of biography
—— David Abulafia , Times Higher EducationBold and imaginative recreation of the diary of the 17th-century antiquary. It shows how close a scrupulous and unselfregarding biographer can come to the savour of a life
—— Graham Robb , SpectatorA genuinely remarkable work of biographical innovation.
—— Stuart Kelly , TLS, Books of the YearI’d like to reread Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey every Christmas for at least the next five years: I love being between its humane pages, which celebrate both scholarly companionship and deep feeling for the past
—— Alexandra Harris , GuardianRuth Scurr’s innovative take on biography has an immediacy that brings the 17th century alive
—— Penelope Lively , GuardianAnyone who has not read Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey can have a splendid time reading it this summer. Scurr has invented an autobiography the great biographer never wrote, using his notes, letters, observations – and the result is gripping
—— AS Byatt , GuardianA triumph, capturing the landscape and the history of the time, and Aubrey’s cadence.
—— Daily TelegraphA brilliantly readable portrait in diary form. Idiosyncratic, playful and intensely curious, it is the life story Aubrey himself might have written.
—— Jane Shilling , Daily MailScurr knows her subject inside out.
—— Simon Shaw , Mail on SundayThe diligent Scurr has evidence to support everything… Learning about him is to learn more about his world than his modest personality, but Scurr helps us feel his pain at the iconoclasm and destruction wrought by the Puritans without resorting to overwrought language.
—— Nicholas Lezard , GuardianAcclaimed and ingeniously conceived semi-fictionalised autobiography… Scurr’s greatest achievement is to bring both Aubrey and his world alive in detail that feels simultaneously otherworldly and a mirror of our own age… It’s hard to think of a biographical work in recent years that has been so bold and so wholly successful.
—— Alexander Larman , Observer