I'm delighted to have been invited to speak at the Pilsudski Institute, London on May 14th 2019 about my novel  THE SUNFLOWER FIELD

Interwoven with a modern day, fictitious wartime mystery, THE SUNFLOWER FIELD  tells the true story of three Polish mathematicians who in 1932 first cracked the ENIGMA code. Considered completely unbreakable, the ENIGMA code was used by the Nazi's to encrypt their messages before transmission. Sharing this intelligence with the Allies on the eve of World War II, it was one of the most significant contributions to the Allied victory and the foundation for subsequent wartime code-breaking efforts.

Barely acknowledged and forgotten within the folds of history it's a story that's hardly been told, until now.

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'The Sunflower Field,' my debut novel, is written to honor the ‘few’, of which there were thousands, who during World War II, in words inspired by Winston Churchill, "gave so much, for so many." In particular for three of those ‘few’, the Polish mathematicians, Jerzy Rozycki, Marian Rejewski and Henryk Zygalski, with whom lies the origins of one of the most significant contributions to the allied victory of World War II, the deciphering of the Nazi encrypted communication system, the Enigma code.

Château des Fouzes ~ World War II intelligence center

I discovered their story having lived in Uzès in the south of France. It led me to the gates of Château des Fouzes, a few kilometers from the town center. It was here, from 1940 to 1942, that these three men worked in secret, at this intelligence centre, code named CADIX, as part of an allied decryption unit.

The Legacy of the Poles who cracked the Enigma Code

As I stood outside the château’s gates, over seventy years later, the persistent chirping of crickets, like the ceaseless ticking of a clock, reminded me of all the minutes which had passed since these men had been here.

Yet World War II was not so long ago, it was my grandparents war, they fought in it, my parents lived through its deprivation, I, like my children, learnt about it in school and I studied it in college.

Like millions of others, I have visited the war memorials, line after line of white crosses, the museums filled with history, the beaches filled with memories, the concentration camps filled with glass containers of tiny shoes and the decimated villages filled with ruins and I have felt very small and humble. But never more so than when I stood outside Château des Fouzes, reading this small plaque, thinking about the unsung heroes it commemorates.

The Enigma Code

Rozycki, Rejewski and Zygalski, first cracked the Enigma code in 1932. The Enigma machine was originally developed in Holland just after the First World War as a cipher apparatus.

This small, typewriter looking device became available commercially and was popular with the banking industry.

Once it came into the exclusive hands of the German Armed Forces, it was developed further so that its possible configurations of approximately 158 million, million, million, made the Enigma code one that was considered unbreakable.

Bletchley Park ~ World War II code breaking

The importance of the Poles’ intelligence about the Enigma code, which they shared with the Allies on the eve of World War II, cannot be over emphasized. It lay the foundation for the subsequent decryption efforts at Bletchley Park in England, led by Alan Turing. Even with Turing’s unquestioned genius, without the Poles' contribution the ultimate final cracking of the Enigma code would have been delayed, World War II would have continued for perhaps as much as two further years, at a cost of thousands more lives.

The role the Poles played did not end in 1939, after the war had started they continued their critically important work from Paris and then in October 1940, assisted by the Resistance, from within the shadows of Château des Fouzes, until they were forced to flee in November 1942. Their achievements were monumental, the recognition for what they did far less so.

"...we shall fight in the fields and streets..... we shall never surrender."

 (W.S. Churchill June 1940)

Standing by the château gates, contemplating all that had happened during those desperate times, I asked myself, if I had been alive then, what role would I have had? Would I have joined the Resistance, would I have had their courage, their resilience, their determination, prepared to risk my all in a world besieged by terror? Would I have been able to make the types of decisions that were forced upon them, to act without hesitation, to take another’s life, to stare death in the face and play my part in the fight for a cause so much bigger than myself?

People weren’t made differently seventy years ago, what was different were the unprecedented times they found themselves living in. It was perhaps the world’s darkest hour. It bought together many people from many nations, such as these Poles who, working alongside the French and the Spanish, sent their critically important decryptions back to the British.

I am not Polish, nor do I have any connections to Poland but staring across the château’s deserted courtyard I realised that the freedom and liberties I enjoy today was because of people like them.

Wandering away from this forgotten place, buried in the south of France, my path took me down the same rutted track where their feet had trodden, between fields of dancing sunflowers and I knew that theirs was a story I had to tell.

I believe in serendipity, that maybe we are all connected by a mere six degrees of separation. So if anyone reading this can help me, as I actively seek The Sunflower Field’s publication, I’d be forever grateful. I would so love to publish this book, yes of course for me but more importantly for Jerzy Rozycki, Marian Rejewski and Henryk Zygalski, some of “the few, who gave so much, for so many………..”

Read more about The Sunflower Field by clicking here

Contact me here

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I wouldn’t normally write a blog about a movie, although I am not really writing about a movie, (as brilliant and Oscar deserving as it is) but more about the person the movie was about. The movie is “The Imitation Game”, the person, Alan Turing. And Alan Turing wasn’t just any person, he was THE person who bought World War II to an end, by probably as much as 2 years, saving about 14 million peoples lives. He should also be acknowledged as THE person behind much of our daily lives for “every time we use a phone or a computer, you use the ideas that Alan Turing invented. Alan discovered the intelligence in computers and today he surrounds us as the true hero of mankind.” Eric Schmidt Executive Chairman of Google.

"Sometimes it is the people that no one imagines anything of, who do the things no-one can imagine" Alan Turing. When Alan Turing succeeded in cracking the Nazi Enigma code he most certainly did something that no one could imagine. Most of the hopes of being able defeat the mightier Nazi force, depended on being able to intercept Nazi intelligence. Bletchley Park in England, just 70 miles north of London became the government's code and cypher school where all efforts were made to try and crack this code. Shrouded in secrecy, the best minds from England were sent here, many from Oxford and Cambridge universities. The 27 year old Alan Turing from Cambridge was one of these young genii. He reported to Bletchley Park a day after the war broke out, September 4th, 1939.

Alan Turing, like hundreds of others, including a few thousand woman, arrived through these gates each morning. They came in hoards, on foot, on bicycle and in buses.

So top secret was their work that no one knew what anyone else was doing and once they left at the end of the day no one spoke to anyone about what they had been toiling over. It was a secret that each and every person kept for over 50 years.

Here are the words of one of one of the people who worked at Bletchley.

When Alan Turing first walked through these gates he was taken into 'The Mansion' to be interviewed. Socially awkward, blunt speaking but a living genius, he had a sense of conviction about his own ability that made him unpopular and often seem arrogant. Perhaps it was that very conviction that enabled him to filter out the immense opposition he faced and remain focused on what he had come to Bletchley Park to do, crack the Engima code.

For months Turing toiled away for ceaseless hours in huts like these, poorly light, cold and draughty in the winter, stuffy and over heated in the summer.

Turing was constantly supplied with critical information from the teams of women who worked alongside him.

Using the knowledge they provided and the incredible workings of his own brain he created a machine, the Bombe to decipher Engima. Metal parts, cogs, wheels and cables to name just a few, Turing devised a miracle, which not only cracked the code but was to be the fore runner of the modern computer.

It can never be said enough times; the intelligence provided by Alan Turing's machine bought World War II to an end at least two year early, saving millions of lives. It was the world's first computer and is behind much of our incredible modern day technology which effects all of our lives daily.

For all of this Alan Turing, instead of being honoured was hounded and treated with suspicion, largely because he was a homosexual, which in England in the 1950's was illegal. He was forced to take horrendous hormone drugs and suffered terrible indignities, finally taking his own life in 1954.

It was only in 2013 that he was pardoned by Queen Elizabeth II, it was long over due.

Now, thanks to Benedict Cumberbatch's incredible portrayal of this amazing man, in the 'Imitation Game' his story has finally become revealed and the debt we allow Alan Turing made known for always.

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Bletchley Park was the home of the British code breaking operation during World War II and the birth place of the world's first computer, the Colossus. The significance of the work done here can not be overstated, it shortened the war by as much as 2 to 4 years. Sir Winston Churchill referred to the code breakers as 'the geese that laid the golden eggs and never cackled' and ordered 'Action this day! Make sure they have all they want on extreme priority...!' General Eisenhower said that their work was 'of priceless value..... saving the lives of thousands.'

Our visit to Bletchley was made more poignant, by being there two days before the 70th anniversary of the D Day landings, the success of which was in large part due to Bletchley feeding false intelligence about the landing location to the Nazis. Visiting it for another time was no less of a remarkable and humbling experience than before............ we have so much to be thankful for.

The mansion house, built as a private home in 1870's, was the military headquarters and recreational building during the war.

These gates were Bletchley Park's main entrance during the war. Each day thousands of staff, mostly women, arrived here by foot, bicycle or bus from Bletchley and surrounding villages.  At its peak the numbers working here reached ten thousand!

Bletchley Park ran 24 hours a day and its secret operations were never breached. Those that worked there, casually explained that they were doing 'boring office work for the war effort'. Few questions were asked of them, maybe because the entire country was plastered with posters like these, warning of the dangers of 'careless talk'.


People worked in these hastily constructed huts which often had poor light, were draughty and very cold in the winter and airless and stuffy during the warmer months.

The women at work in Bletchley Park

Restoration work at Bletchley Park is on going. 
Until this summer, Bletchley Park's Huts 6 and 3 were both derelict but they have now been restored to their wartime condition.

Hut 6, built in January 1940, was used to decrypt German army and air force enigma messages. These messages were then passed to hut 3 for translation & analysis.

Inside the restored huts

 

World War II Type X machines at Bletchley Park, used to encode encrypted messages.

Bletchley Park was chosen because of its proximity to London and the brilliant minds at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, to which there were good train connections. Some of the key players at Bletchley were 'stolen' from here!

Perhaps the most famous of these was Alan Turing, the inventor of the Colossus. Tragically, despite his magnificent achievements, Turing was imprisoned after the war, for being a homosexual and in 1954 he committed suicide. Only in 2013, on December 24th, was Turing granted a royal pardon by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his and his colleagues' work at Bletchley Park and their contribution to our modern, digital age.

Today 'Google' is one of the main contributors to the restoration work at Bletchley.

The Colossus has been reconstructed, this is the back of the machine showing some of its mechanisms.

Turing's initial great achievement, together with Gordon Welchman, was the invention of the 'The Bombe' used to break the Engima code. The Enigma Machine was used by the Nazis to transmit their messages.
In July 1939 three Polish mathematicians; Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Rozycki, who had worked on Enigma, shared their knowledge with the British and French, speeding up the cracking of its code by many months.

The other famous person who liaised with Bletchley intelligence during the war effort was Ian Fleming who worked for MI6. Much of the inspiration for James Bond, '007' was derived from Fleming's work at Bletchley Park.

The people who worked at Bletchley and what they achieved for the war effort will never be forgotten. To this day one marvels at how so many people guarded and kept the secrets they held. One veteran Chris Hayes recalled "I was told to report to Bletchley railway station, and walk up to the main house for an interview. I was not told of the nature of the work before I got there and have kept quiet about it for the past fifty years."

It was a time of unprecedented circumstances when thousands of ordinary people were called upon to do extraordinary things, those 'ordinary' people possessed both courage and honor; we owe our freedom to their collective efforts.

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Bletchley Park, 50 miles north-west of London, predictably, proved a fascinating place. Called ‘Station X’, by the British government, it was where during World War II the British cracked the German Enigma Code, the backbone of the German military and intelligence communications. The success in breaking the code, despite the staggering odds stacked against doing so; 150 million, million, million to one, makes the ‘Bletchley Story’ one of the most incredible and greatest feats of WWII. It probably shortened the war by several years and saved the catastrophic death of thousands.

Winston Churchill described what happened at Bletchley ‘as the goose that laid the golden eggs never cackled’. 

Bletchley was a place of work and ‘home’ to several thousand people, it was veiled in a shroud of utmost secrecy. Women outnumbered men by four to one. They included Wrens, Waafs, linguists, a few code breakers and a smattering of dutiful debutantes. They worked in cramped, crowded conditions, inadequately heated and appalling ventilated. It was especially difficult for those working in the huts housing the huge decryption machines which generated extreme amounts of heat.

Bletchley was built in the mid-nineteenth century as the home of a wealthy London financier, Sir Herbert Leon. It was saved from demolition in 1938, when, with the threat of war looming, the British government decided it was a perfect site to relocate the British code and cypher school. Safe from the threat of bombing and with good rail and road connections

The first code breakers arrived in 1939, masquerading as a shooting party. The Polish had first broken Enigma in 1932 when the code ‘only’ changed every few months. Once the war began it changed daily. In Bletchley’s Huts 3, 4, 6 and 8, equipped with the knowledge learned by the Poles, the highly effective Enigma decryption teams set to work. They were enormously aided by the brilliant mathematician, Alan Turing. Turing developed an electro-mechanical machine, the Bombe, which greatly reduced the odds and thereby the time, to break the daily changing Enigma keys. Turing was
also later involved in the construction of Colossus, the first ever computer, also built at Bletchley and later the Automatic Computing Engine.

A visit to Bletchley provides the opportunity to visualise a spellbinding piece of history. As you walk around the ‘campus’ today, largely unaltered since 1945, you are transported back to the 1940’s. Back to the atmosphere of those times, the tension, the anticipation and all that was at stake.

For a 21^st century visitor, Bletchley remains pretty much as it was 70 years ago, intact and not overly processed and as such the visitor feels they are ‘there’, where it all really happened! None of Churchill’s golden eggs in sight but all the marvel and wonder of the place ringing out from every worn crevice!

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