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The 2014 and 2012 editions| New editions of Alan Turing: The Enigma, both British and American, appeared in 2014. The new British edition is from Vintage, Random House, London, and the new American edition is from Princeton University Press. These new editions are virtually identical with a new 2014 Preface, and a Foreword by Douglas main text and notes are the same as in previous editions, but, mercifully, re-set in a larger typeface which makes it much easier to read than the earlier paperback editions. The cover picture relates to a (non-documentary) American-produced film which appeared in 2014.Order from Amazon: the UK paperback edition |UK Kindle edition | US paperback edition |US Kindle edition. The complete book is on sale as a 30-hour audio from The Turing Centenary editions which appeared in 2012 are still from Amazon: UK edition | US edition. | |
2014 edition
2012 edition |
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Translations:I am represented by Zeno Agency for questions concerning translation rights. - Translation into German by Rolf Herken and Eva Lack: Alan Turing, Enigma,
ISBN 3-211-82627-0, Springer Verlag, Wien.
- Translation into French: An abridgement, translated by N. Zimmermann, appeared as Alan Turing ou l'enigme de l'intelligence, ISBN 2-228-88082-7, Editions Payot. New 2015 edition, including the entire work:Alan Turing ou l'enigme de l'intelligence, ISBN 2-749-92433-2, Michel Lafon.
- Translation into Italian by David Mezzacapa: Storia di un Enigma,
ISBN 88-339-0639-6, Bollati Boringhieri.
I had the honour of receiving an Italian literary prize, the Premio Giovanni Comisso, in 1992.
- Translation into Polish by W. Bartol, ISBN 85-7255-087-5, Proszynski.
See an extract from the Polish edition. Now out of print. A new edition is being prepared.
- Translation into Finnish, ISBN 952-5202-14-3, Alan Turing, arvoitus
- Chinese translation, ISBN 7535768784, Hunan Science and Technology Press. Available here.
- Hungarian translation, ISBN 97896340 6011 6, Kódjátszma Alan Turing élete, Gabo, Budapest.
- Japanese, Korean, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish and Dutch editions are in preparation. The first part of the Japanese edition is now available as ISBN978-4-326-75053-5.
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The centenary edition, 2012Michael Saler, in The Times Literary Supplement. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times.Sinclair McKay, Wall Street JournalAlvay Ray Smith, Notices of the American Mathematical Society.Essential in 2009One of 'Ten essential books on technology', chosen by John Ridpath in the New Statesman, 4 May 2009.Essential in 2006Jim Holt, in the New Yorker, March 2006Essential Book for 2002Listed as one of the essential 50 books of all time in the The Guardian, 1 June 2002.Comment in 2000Martin Davis, in The Universal Computer SylviaNasar, author of A Beautiful Mind.Paul Hoffman, author of The Man Who Loved Only Numbers.
Comment in November 1997'I wish I'd written,' by Ray MonkRay Monk is biographer of Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell and Robert Oppenheimer. His column in the series 'I wish I'd written' appeared in The Guardian on 13 November 1997:There are many things I wish I could write, but realise I never will: poetry, drama, travelogues, situation comedies, to mention but a few. But a book I wish I had written, and one that was a big inspiration for the things I have written, is Alan Turing: the Enigma by Andrew Hodges. I read it when it first came out in 1983, and immediately formed the ambition to write something similar about Ludwig Wittgenstein.Hodges's great achievement was to link the work and life of a scientist in a way that had scarcely been attempted before, and in a manner that avoided many of the obvious pitfalls. Hodges, like Turing, is a mathematician, and was thus able to understand and describe Turing's pioneering work in mathematical logic — and his momentously important codebreaking work during the war — at a depth that would have been beyond most biographers. Like Turing also, Hodges is gay, and his description of Turing's prosecution in 1952 for 'gross indecency' and the tragic events leading up to it, is written with great empathy and an entirely appropriate indignation. It is an almost perfect match of biographer and subject, and, though Hodges is determined, as he puts it, 'to overcome the twentieth-century chasm between scientific thought and human life,' he has the sensitivity to realise that the events of a person's life can never 'explain' the greatness of their thought. Rather than attempt such an explanation, he integrates the work with the life, allowing the reader to see the connections between the two. In doing so, he created not only a great book, but a whole new kind of biographical writing. Desert Island Book Choice by Margaret BodenProf. Margaret Boden, asked by the New Scientist to choose just one book for its edition of 22 November 1997, wrote:My choice is the biography Alan Turing... by Andrew Hodges. This superb biography satisfies many of the intellectual senses. Written by a mathematician, it describes in plain language Turing's work on the foundations of computer science and how he broke the Germans' Enigma code in the Second World War. The subtle depiction of class rivalries, personal relationships, and Turing's tragic end are worthy of a novel. But this was a real person. Hodges describes the man, and the science that fascinated him — which once saved, and still influences, our lives. Some earlier reviewsDouglas Hofstadter, New York Times Book Review,
later included in Metamagical ThemasI. J. Good,NatureRichard Rayner, Time OutHubert Kennedy, The AdvocateSunday Times |
Arts and MediaI am represented by Zeno Agency for questions concerning artistic rights. This is a selected list of developments where my own writing and participation has had a direct input. There are of course countless other productions, whether documentary or freely imaginative, which in one way or another refer to Alan Turing's life and work. | Music: the Pet Shop BoysOn 23 July 2014, the Pet Shop Boys (Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe) performed a new musical work, A man from the future, including a narrated text drawn from Alan Turing: the Enigma. This was the final piece in a special PSB Late Night Prom in the BBC 2014 series of Promenade Concerts, at the Royal Albert Hall, London.See the Pet Shop Boys website for further details.
Interpretation and analysis by Wayne Studer. | | Stage and Television PlayAlan Turing: the Enigma was the basis for the 1986 play Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore, which first played in London and New York, starring Sir Derek Jacobi. It has been frequently performed by professional and amateur companies across the world since then. In 1996 it appeared as a television film and video, also featuring Derek Jacobi. YouTube version | | Television documentaryThe television film The Strange Life and Death of Dr Turing was made for the BBC Horizon series in December 1991, and first shown on 9 March 1992. The film-maker was Christopher Sykes.YouTube version. | Art workAlan Turing: the Enigma also inspired the late artist and sculptor Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. See my illustrated talk on Paolozzi's Turing prints (2000). | |
Bibliographic information on earlier editionsThe book first appeared in October/November 1983 as- UK hardback edition:Alan Turing: the Enigma, Burnett Books with Hutchinson.
- US hardback edition:Alan Turing: the Enigma, Simon & Schuster.
It then appeared in paperback editions:- UK Counterpoint paperback edition:Alan Turing: the Enigma of Intelligence,
Edition without photographs, the text otherwise the same.
- US Touchstone paperback editionAlan Turing: the Enigma
- UK Vintage edition from 1992 to 2012, replaced by the 2012 centenary edition
- US Walker Books edition from 2000 to 2005
The German translation,Alan Turing, Enigma, was originally published in 1989 by Kammerer & Unverzagt as one of their Computerkultur series. |
The original 1983 edition |
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