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Codebreaking at Bletchley Park – Book tour interview with Jan Slimming
Check out this book here https://amzn.to/3yrIEkM
Interview Timeline
Jan Slimming is a publishing professional who was six when she first heard of Bletchley Park, but it was decades later that she was compelled to research and write about this little-known part of her mother’s life. We spoke about the book, her mother’s code-breaking career and her father’s WWII captivity. Codebreaker Girls: A Secret Life at Bletchley Park (Pen and Sword Military, 2021)
0:38 – Jan talks about why she wrote about her mom’s WWII work at Bletchley Park.
5:39 – Jan talks about what the book focuses on.
10:44 – Jan talks about everyone at Bletchley Park being billeted nearby.
12:34 – Jan talks about the training or lack of among the Park personnel.
14:35 – Jan talks about how her parents met.
16:46 – Jan talks about the skills they used for code breaking.
20:49 – Jan talks about her mother’s relatives who also worked in code breaking.
23:24 – Jan talks about what her mom did after the war.
24:51 – Jan talks about her mom not talking about working for the India office.
26:49 – Jan talks about how she broke the book down.
28:31 – Jan talks about her research.
31:26 – Jan talks about touring Bletchley Park.
35:18 – Jan talks about going back to England for her research.
38:25 – Jan talks about wanting to know if her mother was assigned to finding the 18th division.
40:23 – Jan talks about her mother going through a nervous breakdown after the war.
45:45 – Jan talks about other people who had relatives at Bletchley Park reach out to her.
52:39 – Jan goes into detail about touring Bletchley Park.
53:54 – Jan talks about security at Bletchley Park.
57:30 – Jan talks about her mother meeting Ian Fleming and knowing Alan Turing.
1:00:21 – Jan is on Pen and Sword and on Facebook at Jan Slimming Author.
Links of interest
https://penandswordbooks.com/codebreaker-girls.html#.YQyka0ApCUk
https://www.facebook.com/Codebreakersdaughter
Contact Information
For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me at www.warscholar.org, on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar. Or subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify Please see historyrabbithole.com for a list of my dozen or so blogs and podcasts. You’re sure to find something you like.
Guests: Jan Slimming
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: Books, audio interviews, author, podcast, Pen and Sword, Espionage, WWII, Britain,
Check out this book here https://amzn.to/3yrIEkM
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