Robert Harris, Jeffrey Archer, and how we got spy novels instead of a computer industry

Drew Ratter writes:

We better not leave Robert Harris out of the field of excellence, I think. He gets packaged a bit in the blockbuster category, but he is extremely bright, did excellent research long before he could afford to buy so much of it, and writes very well.

I didn't read him for quite a while because of a category error. I thought he was like Jeffrey Archer, a truly terrible writer. Don't know why. No excuses, a heartfelt apology.

So, Enigma. The story of Bletchley Park is pretty marvellous as documentary, and I wondered what fictionalising would add.

Quite a bit, actually. Harris is pretty comfortable in the period, and handles it well. The chilly damp of war time Britain, the diverse and unorthodox code breakers, the absolutely vital nature of the work on Naval Enigma. It's all handled very intelligently and with depth.

It isn't the place to stop, though. Your experience will be much enriched by getting a bit deeper into the real residents of Bletchley Park. Try The Secret Life of Bletchley Park, by Sinclair McKay. I was interested to note that the Honourable Sarah Baring's obituary was in the Times only last month.

One reason for reading Enigma, and in pursuing an interest in the period is, of course, our standard British puzzlement at lost opportunities. The developments and innovations made atBletchley certainly rank high there. There was, through work by Alan Turing, young Jericho's boss in Enigma, and the now much less known (he was working class) genius Tommy Flowers, the basis for a world leading computer industry.

So what happened? The establishment ordered the destruction of Colossus, the highest peak of Bletchley computing, and swore everybody to secrecy for the duration of the Cold War.

Which becomes the focus of our ongoing interest in spies and their secret world, probably much more competent and intellectually satisfying in fiction than in fact.