Alan Turing : The Enigma

Alan Turing was the extraordinary Cambridge mathematician who masterminded the cracking of the German Enigma ciphers and transformed the Second World War. But his vision went far beyond this crucial achievement. Before the war he had formulated 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 committed suicide and one of Britain's greatest scientific minds was lost. This is a thoroughly researched and sensitively written book about a misunderstood and under-appreciated giant in the field of science; someone who should have been celebrated as a war hero instead of being treated as a criminal. This book is even more important now in this centenary year of Turing's birth (2012), and in light of the British government's recent refusal to grant an official pardon to Turing (for his arrest on charges of homosexuality).

Paperback, 624 Pages, Orig. Publ. 1983, This Ed. Publ 1987