Noshing With Dermot Turing – September 9, 2021

Author, X, Y & Z: The Real Story of How Enigma Was Broken

This week, Ira spoke with Dermot Turing, author of X, Y & Z: The Real Story of How Enigma Was Broken. In this spyproof episode of Ira’s Everything Bagel, Dermot talks about why it was important to break the Enigma code (used by the German military in World War Two); how Polish codebreakers began solving the mysteries of Enigma and breaking the code, prior to further breakthroughs at Bletchley Park; why the contributions of the Polish codebreakers were missing or underplayed in most histories of the the war; the extent to which the war may have been shortened by cracking the code; why Gustave Bertrand was called the magician, and how he brought the codebreakers from different nations together; and who was World War Two’s greatest spy (a name most people would not know).

Dermot Turing is the acclaimed author of Prof, a biography of his famous uncle, The Story of Computing, and most recently X, Y and Z – the real story of how Enigma was broken. He is also a regular speaker at historical and other events. He began writing in 2014 after a career in law.

Dermot – like his celebrated uncle Alan Turing – was educated at Sherborne School and King’s College, Cambridge. After a doing a D.Phil in Genetics at Oxford, he concluded that scientific research was not for him, and moved into the legal profession.

He worked for the Government Legal Service and then the international law firm Clifford Chance, where he was a partner until 2014. His specialism was financial sector regulation, particularly the problems associated with failed banks, and financial market infrastructure.

As well as writing and speaking, Dermot is a trustee of The Turing Trust and a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford. He continues his interest in the financial world.

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