Turing: Pioneer of the Information Age – Jack Copeland
After Andrew Hodges’ book this is probably the best known biography.
Overall really enjoyable. The way the author writes is extremely readable! Great length chapters with clear stop and start points to each. It focuses a lot on Turing’s work, often giving credit to him where it may have been misplaced over time (there are a few great sections that say “people may think the first time this was thought of was [insert event here] but really Turing had started it all off”…or something to that effect) which shows the true impact he had on our society and how amazing he really was.
Also it is clear that throughout the book information has been very well collected (it seems Copeland collected some of his information from friends of Turing that he got to speak to back in the 90’s) and presented to give the important points. It never seems to go on and on or fly away on a tangent. Even when it the author tells us, as is often the case, how ideas that Turing started have developed in recent years or gives background to how things were working before Alan began to work on them. It’s all completely fascinating and Copeland makes all the maths and technical stuff really readable and easy to understand.
As much as this biography is quite work-centric, this is still entwined with aspects of Turing himself. What his friends thought of him, what he was like or particular memories people had of his attitude and personality, we still get to hear about the man behind the magic. There is, unfortunately, very very little about Turing as a young boy. There is no mention at any point of Christopher Morcom which is a shame but it doesn’t take away from the book because these parts of his life are clearly not the main focus.
There is, however, a chapter dedicated to the end of Turing’s life. It seems Copeland wanted to try and push the range of views about his death. He seems to be quite skeptical of the suicide verdict in his writing. Although he never says it is definitely an incorrect verdict he seems to favour the argument that is was some kind of accident (a view which Turing’s mother held very strongly). There are, of course, many different opinions of this and with so little inquest into the situation at the time there are things we will never know. But he does end with this wonderful quote:
“The exact circumstances of Turing’s death may always remain unclear… …Perhaps we should just shrug our shoulders, agree that the jury is out, and focus on Turing’s life and extraordinary work.”
Definitely recommend this book if you’re interested in Turing! Copeland’s writing style is very appealing as it is clear and understandable yet still detailed, with a few fun pictures and diagrams to help at times too. He has written many other things related to Turing too.
You can purchase the book HERE at amazon.com. Of course other sites/shops are available along with regional amazon websites.
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