For many years after the Second World War, the codebreaking activities of Bletchley Park and its out-stations remained secret. Only in the 1970s did the first accounts emerge and the full significance of "the most successful intelligence agency in world history" gradually become apparent. This is all the more remarkable, given the scale of operations at BP. At times, around four thousand high-grade German signals were read a day, many within 24 hours of being intercepted. This was achieved by "an extraordinary mixture" of people, drafted in from all walks of life, civilian and military. At its peak, perhaps 10,000 people worked at BP; but for decades no-one talked publicly about their experiences. Only in 1993 did Hinsley and Stripp's Codebreakers give details of 'the inside story of Bletchley Park'. Much, of course, remains to be told.

An Extraordinary Mixture: Bletchley Park in Wartime

Biographies & Memoirs

Hogarth, James

Historical

Mansion Field

Helena Gleichen, Queen Victoria's great-niece and cousin to George V, gives the lie to the belief that Victorian women were meek, submissive and led restricted lives. A passionate horsewoman and successful artist, the autobiographical anecdotes in the earlier part of the book are lively and amusing. The longer second section gives a detailed account of how she and Nina Hollings, her long-term companion and sister of the composer and suffragette Ethel Smyth, raised and manned one of the first mobile X-Ray units to be used by the British in World War I - Marie Curie was organizing the French radiography service - for which they both received numerous decorations. Helena Gleichen paints a vivid picture of the war in Italy, which tends to be little remembered compared to the Western Front, and above all gives an extremely interesting account of how the X-ray Unit was set up and operated, and the considerable impact it had on the treatment and survival rate of the wounded.

Contacts and Contrasts

Gleichen, Helena

Community & Culture

Realises the author's long fascination with the lives of a group of 148 Slovakian children. This title presents the stories of the contributors who are survivors of anti-Semitic atrocities perpetrated by Slovak fascists from 1939 until 1944 and later by the invading Nazis.

The Hide-And-Seek Children: Recollections of Jewish Survivors from Slovakia

This is the story of the orphans and elders at Grace Care Center, a residence for the displaced in Sri Lanka's impoverished, war-torn northeast - the story of Sri Lanka itself: Girls made orphans by a war that sometimes recruits children for battle; the destitute seniors whose aging eyes saw a nation tear itself, and their families, apart. Established by an American attorney during a lull in the decades-long fighting, Grace Care Center offered shelter from war, support against poverty, and hope against an uncertain future. December 2004 brought yet another challenge - the Indian Ocean tsunami. Brief hope that the resulting devastation would inspire opposing sides to join forces in response to the disaster ended with a return to war. More determined than ever, the Grace community and their American friends worked for a simple dream: That ethnic groups victimized and divided by war can live together in peace; that destitute seniors deserve to live in dignity; and that children need not grow up in violence. Grace Care Center is the story of hope in a land of tragedy. It's a special place; all the more precious considering what life is like, but for the Grace, beyond its walls. " The book] gives the best account I have read anywhere of the brutality of abduction and life in an LTTE training camp for child soldiers. The best thing ... is that it is not judgemental. It graphically conveys to us all the horrors of war without feeling the need to point fingers. " - From the Foreword by Paul Harris, War Correspondent. James A. Mitchell is a veteran of the U.S. Army, survivor of 10 years of living and working in New York City, and communications director for VeAhavta, the nonprofit organization responsible for the Grace Care Center orphanage and elders' home in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.

But for the Grace: Profiles in Peace from a Nation at War

History

James A Mitchell

Ancient Civilizations

In The Shadow Of the Cotton Tree: A Diary of Second World War Sierra Leone

Rillie, Jack

Members and friends of an Anglo-French community in Paris share their first-hand experiences of war and conflict, predominantly during World War II in France and in Britain, but also in more recent conflicts. Some of the accounts are movingly short, others longer and more assured; some 'made the headlines', while others have never been recounted before. All the contributors - as children, civilians, or servicemen and women - tell fascinating and important stories, and the collection is illustrated throughout with personal and family photographs, docments and sketches. In the words of the Editor, 'I bid you to read on.'

Our Say, Not Hearsay: Wartime Accounts from an Anglo-French community in Paris

Leaders & Notable People

To the Yetts o' Hell: Neil Munro and War

MUNRO, Neil

Military

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