Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945
1 journaler for this copy...
Pre-numbered label used for registration.
I'm only a quarter of the way through this book but I love it already; wonderfully dry British tone, fascinating bits of history, lots of humor... I first heard of this book via Skyring's comments in the forums and in his reviews (here and here), and was sufficiently intrigued to get a copy of my own - and I heartily recommend it. I plan to send it to my folks when I've finished, as my father fought in WWII and might find parts of it even more interesting than I have.
*** Later: This is truly a remarkable book - fast-paced, informative, moving, hilarious, gut-wrenching. I adore Marks' tone of dry smart-assed irreverence, which kicks in in the very first line: "In January 1942 I was escorted to the war by my parents in case I couldn't find it or met with an accident on the way." And we're off... Young Leo has a talent for cryptography, if not always for following orders, and he's soon in charge of codemaking operations and responsible for training agents before they go behind enemy lines. He realizes at once that the existing system of codes isn't terribly secure and sets about developing a new one, which he then has to try to get implemented in the face of significant shortages of material and labor; at the same time he's responsible for deciphering badly-encrypted messages coming in from the field, since delays and retransmissions increase the risk that the agents or wireless operators will be caught.
Marks describes the encryption process in great detail, but while some knowledge of the process is useful in understanding the problems that Marks and the agents must face, one doesn't have to actually learn to encode messages in order to follow the story. In fact, I found that even with all the acronyms and terminology flying around, the narrative flowed quite smoothly (except for a few times when Marks' turns of phrase turned a little too quickly for me!). It's rare that I read a 600-page book and wish that it were longer...
One of the bits of trivia that attracted me to this book was that Marks' father was one of the owners of 84 Charing Cross Road, the bookshop made famous by Helene Hanff's "gentle little myth," as Leo puts it. I didn't expect there to be much about the bookshop here, but I was surprised; not only did young Leo discover his talent for codes there (while flipping through a signed 1st edition of Poe's "The Gold Bug" at age 8), but it features as both refuge and inspiration at several key moments.
I'm finding it hard to summarize - there are so many wonderful anecdotes and quotable bits that I could fill pages, but I'd rather just recommend the book. Read this one.
I'm only a quarter of the way through this book but I love it already; wonderfully dry British tone, fascinating bits of history, lots of humor... I first heard of this book via Skyring's comments in the forums and in his reviews (here and here), and was sufficiently intrigued to get a copy of my own - and I heartily recommend it. I plan to send it to my folks when I've finished, as my father fought in WWII and might find parts of it even more interesting than I have.
*** Later: This is truly a remarkable book - fast-paced, informative, moving, hilarious, gut-wrenching. I adore Marks' tone of dry smart-assed irreverence, which kicks in in the very first line: "In January 1942 I was escorted to the war by my parents in case I couldn't find it or met with an accident on the way." And we're off... Young Leo has a talent for cryptography, if not always for following orders, and he's soon in charge of codemaking operations and responsible for training agents before they go behind enemy lines. He realizes at once that the existing system of codes isn't terribly secure and sets about developing a new one, which he then has to try to get implemented in the face of significant shortages of material and labor; at the same time he's responsible for deciphering badly-encrypted messages coming in from the field, since delays and retransmissions increase the risk that the agents or wireless operators will be caught.
Marks describes the encryption process in great detail, but while some knowledge of the process is useful in understanding the problems that Marks and the agents must face, one doesn't have to actually learn to encode messages in order to follow the story. In fact, I found that even with all the acronyms and terminology flying around, the narrative flowed quite smoothly (except for a few times when Marks' turns of phrase turned a little too quickly for me!). It's rare that I read a 600-page book and wish that it were longer...
One of the bits of trivia that attracted me to this book was that Marks' father was one of the owners of 84 Charing Cross Road, the bookshop made famous by Helene Hanff's "gentle little myth," as Leo puts it. I didn't expect there to be much about the bookshop here, but I was surprised; not only did young Leo discover his talent for codes there (while flipping through a signed 1st edition of Poe's "The Gold Bug" at age 8), but it features as both refuge and inspiration at several key moments.
I'm finding it hard to summarize - there are so many wonderful anecdotes and quotable bits that I could fill pages, but I'd rather just recommend the book. Read this one.
Controlled release:
I'm sending this to my folks in Texas.
I'm sending this to my folks in Texas.
