The Bletchley Girls

War, Secrecy, Love and Loss: The Women of Bletchley Park Tell Their Story

By: Tessa Dunlop

Narrated by: Anna Bentinck

Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Historian and broadcaster Tessa Dunlop tells the story of the women of Bletchley Park through exclusive and unprecedented access to the women themselves. The Bletchley Girls weaves together the lives of 15 women who were all selected to work in Britain's most secret organisation - Bletchley Park.

It is their story, told in their voices; Tessa met and talked to 15 veterans, often visiting them several times. Firm friendships were made as their epic journey unfolded on paper. The scale of female involvement in Britain during the Second World War wasn't matched in any other country.

From eight million working women, just over 7,000 were handpicked to work at Bletchley Park and its outstations. There had always been girls at the park, but soon they outnumbered the men three to one. A refugee from Belgium, a Scottish debutante, a Jewish 14-year-old and a factory worker from Northamptonshire - the Bletchley Girls confound stereotypes. But they all have one common bond: the war and their highly confidential part in it.

In the middle of the night, hunched over meaningless pieces of paper, tending mind-blowing machines, sitting listening for hours on end, theirs was invariably confusing, monotonous and meticulous work, about which they could not breathe a word.

By meeting and talking to these fascinating female secret keepers who are still alive today, Tessa Dunlop captures their extraordinary journeys into an adult world of war, secrecy, love and loss. Through the voices of the women themselves, this is a portrait of life at Bletchley Park beyond the celebrated code breakers; it's the story of the girls behind Britain's ability to consistently outsmart the enemy and an insight into the women they have become.

©2015 Tessa Dunlop (P)2016 Hodder & Stoughton

interesting history

This is non- fiction. It's a talk-umentary of live older ladies who were actually there, at Bletchly Park. They were of a generation and social class that had morals, rules, and education. They were wholesome, romantic diligent, and super dedicated to the War Effort. I learned how they were brought up, how they courted, danced, and how they lived during their time at BP. It's a vignette of that era. I couldn't tell who was who but I got the gyst of the group. Thank you for your service, ladies.

Outstanding!!!

Simply Outstanding!!! The story, the writer, the narrator, but most of all, the women of Bletchley Park are simply outstanding!

Please post a schedule of the talks at BP

A life changing read.
To learn their story is to get a lesson on how to live life. We owe them so much!

Well written Bletchley from unique perspective

Dunlop interviewed over a dozen women who worked at Bletchley during the war. It’s a compelling perspective, beautifully assembled and told. The women were all young during the war, but from wildly different backgrounds, and with strikingly different experiences of their work at Bletchley. A coherent and engaging narrative emerges, superbly read by Anna Bentinck.

Wonderful story about the ladies of BP

This is a story about the young girls who were thrusted into adulthood during WWII. They worked on one of the most top-secret things during that time, and continued to be kept confidential only until recently. This book is not about the enigma or Bletchley Park. It’s about those women their wives before during, and after in the hardships standard truly inspiring.

Fantastic story

I thought that the interviews with the Bletchley Ladies was well done and informative. I had started the Lee Jackson World War II “After Dunkirk” series recently and was pleased to find this story on the Bletchley ladies and the importance of their part in the war effort. I especially enjoyed that this story showed how much it cost them in not being able to say what they were doing.

Disjointed & Confusing

This book had great potential but was limited by the scope set out by the publisher and the approach chosen by the author.

First, in order to be included in the story the women had to be alive. This created a beat the clock feeling because many of the women interviewed were well into their 90's. This was done to enable the reader to hear the stories directly from the women--not second hand--strengthening the "human interest" angle. In the end an unusual choice and very limiting because it really narrowed the playing field to women who were very young--first time away from home "girls"--during their time at Bletchley. A broader subset of the population may have been more representative of the whole story and the actual population of Bletchley Park.

Further, the author's approach of presenting the 15 women as a group rather than individually in their own chapters caused me the biggest problem. I liked the idea of telling the history, background and personal experience of each of the 15 women interviewed. In theory this offered a picture of the culture and state of the world leading up to the war. In reality the choice to cover the women as a group--related only by topic--was a huge problem. There was just too much jumping around from person to person. To me, it would have been better if each woman was introduced separately in their own chapter. That way the reader would have had a chance to get to know the women--putting a history firmly with a name. As it stands, the whole thing was a jumble. It was just impossible for me to keep the names and the stories straight and to feel any connection to the individual women presented.

Over all this was a frustrating, disjointed and confusing book which misses the mark and becomes a muddle. Disappointing if you are looking for a human face and a broad approach to the story of Bletchley Park.

th e girls

boring not a good listen very slow and reader is enough to put you to sleep