If you want to read about the decipherment of Linear B then this book is the motherlode. The author was a Bletchley Park code-breaker who worked with Ventris on the decipherment, so this is a first hand account. The central part of the book where he describes the breakthrough reads almost like a memoir. Some (most) of the linguistics went over my head, but even if the fine detail of the argument is missed you can still follow it and the story.

He also gives an overview of Mycenaean studies pre-decipherment and discusses the implications of what was found written on the tablets. It was still a controversial topic when this book was published and I particularly enjoyed how he would dismiss the opinions of other experts as 'absurd'.

With the leaflets upstairs.