
Prof
Alan Turing Decoded
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Narrated by:
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Chris Courtenay
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By:
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Dermot Turing
About this listen
Alan Turing was an extraordinary man who crammed into a life of only 42 years the careers of mathematician, codebreaker, computer scientist and biologist. He is widely regarded as a war hero grossly mistreated by his unappreciative country, and it has become hard to disentangle the real man from the story. It is easy to cast him as a misfit, the stereotypical professor.
But actually Alan Turing was never a professor, and his nickname, 'Prof', was given by his codebreaking friends at Bletchley Park. Now Alan Turing's nephew, Dermot Turing, has taken a fresh look at the influences on Alan Turing's life and creativity and the later creation of a legend.
For the first time it is possible to disclose the real character behind the cipher-text: how did Alan’s childhood experiences influence the man? Who were the influential figures in Alan's formative years? How did his creative ideas evolve? Was he really a solitary, asocial genius? What was his wartime work after 1942, and why was it kept even more secret than the Enigma story? What is the truth about Alan Turing's conviction for gross indecency, and did he commit suicide? What is the significance of the Royal Pardon granted in 2013?
In Dermot's own style he takes a vibrant and entertaining approach to the life and work of a true genius.
©2015 Dermot Turing (P)2016 Audible, LtdThorough insightful biography
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Attitudes have evolved, too, so the occasional lapses of Hodges's account into outmoded terms aren't there to give the reader/listener an involuntary shiver from time to time.
The narrator is much better than Gordon Griffin, who tends to send me to sleep!
Accessible Turing biography.
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The book itself was well-researched and even looked into areas I didn't expect - like famous ancestors - which was certainly a pleasant surprise.
A word of warning to the unprepared reader, however; the book focused quite heavily on the more technical aspects of Turing's work. I would have preferred more interviews with those who knew him than on pages of droll explanations of computational mathematics, the specific mechanical workings of Enigma and the "bombes", and even the more esoteric work about the mathematics behind the formation of seashells and sunflowers. Fascinating to someone with that kind of expertise, I'm sure, but rather overwhelming to the likes of me.
A fascinating life story, but too technical.
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