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Codebreakers
Codebreakers
Oct 27, 2024 6:26 AM

Author:James Wyllie,Michael McKinley

Codebreakers

While battalions hunkered down in the mud of western France, anti-aircraft guns took aim at zeppelins floating over the capital, and Atlantic convoys tried desperately to evade German U-boats, another, more secret battle was underway. Down gloomy Whitehall corridors a team of eccentric and pioneering codebreakers were fighting for information that would give them a decisive advantage over the enemy.

The new technologies of wireless and telegraph were vital for governments and the military, but vulnerable to interception. Cracking the codes used to protect them quickly became a crucial part of the war effort, and London Room 40, led by the charismatic and cunning ‘Blinker’ Hall, was at the centre of this push for intelligence. Not content to wait for enemy communications to come to him, Hall was soon running agents in other countries, particularly in neutral USA where German saboteurs were intent on damaging the essential flow of munitions to Britain.

The stories of Bletchley Park and the spies of the Second World War are well known, but it was Room 40 and their colleagues across the intelligence services that started it all. From the docks of New York City to shady Cairo hotels, this is the gripping and fast-paced story of spies, codebreakers and saboteurs.

Reviews

Wyllie and McKinley take us to the headquarters of the brilliant 'Blinker' Hall, a codebreaker as skilled as Alan Turing

—— Independent

A brilliant evocation of place grasped in its modernity

—— Guardian

[Dillon's] account of the Faversham explosion is as bold as it is dramatic, while his descriptive passages about the marshlands of Kent are so evocative that you can practically feel the mud sticking at your feet

—— Evening Standard

Dillon ... has a WG Sebald-like gift for interrogating the landscape ... a work of real elegiac seriousness that goes to the heart of a case of human loss and destruction in England's sinister pastures green

—— Irish Times

Exhilarating ...utterly beguiling

—— Literary Review

His bracing polemic . . . vivid, concise . . . he has a keen eye for telling statistics . . . he also sprinkles his grim narrative with colourful eye-witness accounts . . . among the glut of books published to mark the Great War's centenary, this deserves high marks for passion and clarity.

—— Andrew Lynch , SUNDAY BUSINESS POST

Engaging writing and excellent presentation . . . a tricky yet well-crafted analysis, which adds to the revisionist school of thought with some edgy arguments, this is sure to get you thinking.

—— BRITAIN AT WAR magazine

An insightful study of generalship on both sides.

—— DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Books of the Year'

A tremendously well-written and important book and a testament to the qualities Camus lent La Peste's hero: 'humane, optimistic, tolerant, free-thinking, ever alive to injustice and acts of inhumanity'

—— Rebecca K Morris , Independent

Caroline Moorehead’s remarkable book is in essence the story of how a community, or rather group of communities, survived the travails of war with dignity. It is also a tale that gives a larger meaning to Hemingway’s macho phrase, 'grace under pressure'… Moorehead is wary of attempts to simplify history and ignore the complications of memory… What, as the last memories dim, was the truth? Moorehead’s question is implicit: is there such a thing? The reader is left with another question, equally difficult: 'what would I have done?’

—— Ian Bell , The Herald

Powerful and ultimately uplifting book … a far more nuanced account of courage - in which some Catholics did indeed help, and the links with neutral Switzerland were occasionally helpful - than previously recounted about Le Chambon

—— Anne Sebba , Jewish Chronicle

Fascinating and heartening story… Thorough, objective and readable… captivating

—— Roger Hutchinson , Scotsman

Elegant style

—— Richard Vinen , Evening Standard

Brilliantly captures the actions of an astonishing, taciturn wartime community

—— Dermot Bulger , Sunday Business Post

A story of courage and determination, of heroic individuals…and of what can be done when people come together to oppose tyranny

—— Sunday Telegraph

A unique story of courage and determination

—— Daily Telegraph

Elegant style

—— WOW247

Moorehead’s account makes for frequently moving and, at times, harrowing reading… Fascinating

—— Hanna Diamond , BBC History Magazine

[Moorehead is a] brilliant investigative journalist

—— Country Life

A work of remembrance and a moving tribute

—— Iain Finlayson , Saga Magazine

Moorehead skillfully intersperses layer after layer of historical fact with narratives of deeply human stories

—— Henriette Wentink , Reform Magazine

A moving piece, splendidly told

—— Lucy Beckett , Tablet

It’s an inspiring story

—— Peter Lewis , Daily Mail

Moorehead does an expert job in pulling together testimonies from survivors to filter myths and memories from fact to retell an extraordinary tale

—— Julia Richardson , Daily Mail

Story of courage and determination, of a small number of heroic individuals who risked their lives to save others, and of what can be done when people come together to oppose tyranny

—— Miss Dinky

Village of Secrets is crammed full of stories from survivors, tales of courage, betrayal, failure, success, hope, despair. It is a helter-skelter ride through the most extreme of human experiences

—— Susannah Perkins , Nudge
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