I've previously read his book Station X on Bletchley Park. This one focuses on the efforts to break the Japanese codes in the second world war. It draws on a lot of comments from people who were actually involed, which brings it to life. Smith himself does a pretty good job of detailing all the goings on. It can get a bit confusing with all the people and places involved. There is some detail about how some codes were broken, but I would have liked a bit more detail, perhaps with some examples to get a real idea of what was involved. The story has a local connection as a lot of people were taught Japanese in my home town of Bedford.

Part of the story involves the issues of cooperation, or lack of it, between the British and the Americans. There was even rivalry between the US army and navy. This may have cost many lives when information was not shared. The people were incredibly dedicated. They often knew nothing about how their results were used or what other departments were doing and could receive no public recognition of their work. It's only fairly recently that the public has been aware of it at all.

In all a good read, but be prepared to work at it to keep track of everything.

Maybe this year I will get around to visiting Bletchley Park. It's not as if it's far away.