The Bletchley Women by Patricia Adrian

 

The Bletchley Women by Patricia Adrian has a historical premise. If you have read Kate Quinn's Rose Code or similar historical fiction, you will know the background of Bletchley Park. It was an outpost that was set up outside of London, working in complete secrecy of decrypting code and cracking the Enigma. A combination of unintelligible codes were produced by a machine had some messages encrypted within them. It was nearly impossible for anyone to break these codes. It is said that there were 159 quintillion combinations! The main task initially was to decrypt messages of the Luftwaffe [German air force] and few from the German army. You must read up all that is there on the internet about Bletchley Park and how these codes were so complicated and yet were broken.

But, this book aimed at yet another angle. It is the story of Rose, Evie, Elinor, Lucy and Esther meeting at Bletchley Park as strangers and forming a friendship that would help them not only survive through difficult times of war but also in their personal lives. And of course, it was about making a mark in a man's world; to prove that women were equally intelligent and if they could not be on the battle field, wielding arms & ammunition, they were better off fighting the battle with their keen sight, dedication & of course sharpness of mind.

These girls came from respectable homes; living with strict and overbearing family rules. It was typical for girls to find a husband and if they found one, to do everything in their capacity to keep him. Girls didn't need to find a job or even think of one. Or find independence for that matter. All these girls were slowly rebelling the family and simply asking for a different perspective of their existence, apart from being married, learning to cook & sew and make babies.

One beautiful quote stands out in the book:

“The times are changing and we don’t know where it will toss us. All that we know is that it’s time to take matters in our own manicured hands and handle them.”

This book isn't bad. It just has a different perspective which may not fit the standards of mind blowing fiction. It is slightly slow and probably better off listened to than read. The author has done justice to find another point of view apart from the historical facts - how did women, coming from conservative backgrounds, actually find such high security, secretive jobs. What lies did they have to tell family so as to be away from home and work in a place you can't talk about.

I cannot resist reading up about Bletchley Park and stories surrounding it - they surely make up great literature.

Edited to add: We are probably more aware of the mention of London because of Bletchley Park, but I chanced upon the 2017 film Dunkirk, that gave more fuel to my search on what really happened there and why it was important. This book also talks of how Evie's brother has been declared lost at sea in Dunkirk.

An evacuation mission was launched in Dunkirk to save 338,000 British and French soldiers from the French port of Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June 1940. As mentioned on the internet, despite many ships being sunk and many lives lost, by the end of the operation on 4 June, Admiral Bertram Ramsay, his ships and staff had rescued 338,226 British and Allied troops and landed them in England within 9 days. The rescue came to be regarded as a 'miracle', and remains the largest amphibious evacuation undertaken in wartime. 

The gently shelving beaches meant that large warships could only pick up soldiers from the town's East Mole, a sea wall which extended into deep water, or send their boats on the beaches to collect them. To speed up the process, the British Admiralty appealed to the owners of small boats for help. These became known as the 'little ships'.