E-book read The Hitchikers Trilogy by Douglas Adams

I only ever read the first of the books, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy when I was younger.   By the time I had read that the BBC series had been broadcast - so I did not then read Restaurant at the End of the Universe, or Life the Universe and Everything.

So I had been meaning to read them again - they contain a lot of humour and word play that would have passed me by before.  Also a lot of philosophical ideas about life are present especially in the first book.

I think the first book is the strongest with a lot of clever ideas in there, by the time you get to Life the Universe and Everything it feels like the attempt at a story line has taken over from the comedy and ideas.

Still great to be able to read them again - I will move onto books 4 and 5 of the trilogy soon.

Ebook read: The Secret Life of Bletchley Park by Sinclair McKay

A very thorough history of the role the code breaking in Bletchley played during the war years, also a portrait of those involved from high up to the people doing day to day work.

I found this a really interesting read, the book describes well the code breaking mechanics without getting too bogged down in detail. It ties historical war events to the background code breaking. I had never appreciated that the location of Bismarck, the North Africa campaign, the Atlantic convoy war, and keeping Russia in with intelligence had all benefited from code decrypts.

Throughout the author is at pains to explain the secrecy involved, to the extent that some information could not always be used because it would betray the source. This secrecy continued way after the war, it was not until the 1970s when a book was released about the "Ultra secret" that the first signs appeared.

Non use of information has some controversy, the book argues that it was not responsible for allowing Coventry to be bombed without any evacuation, or for not informing the Americans of Pearl Harbour.

The accepted truth is that the code breakers shortened the war by two years, I think that under sells them, keeping supply lines open in the Atlantic, and keeping Russia in with intelligence must have been a huge tactical advantage.

The post war secrecy is interesting, Britain missed out on the birth of the computer having ironically used something akin to them in the code breaking. Alan Turing was treated shamefully and killed himself in the early 1950s. The silence of those who worked at Bletchley is quite staggering, with some sad stories of people not being able to bring themselves to tell their families what their role was after many years.

Part of this maybe down to the compartmentalisation of the decoding tasks, huts on the park which did specific jobs and everyone working in a culture where you might not have known what was going on in other departments. Bletchley did have a brush with the Cambridge spy ring as they recruited from bright academic circles, and that sideline is also interesting with the author suggessting the British government was happy to let some information be divulged to the Russians this way.

E-Book read: Phoenix Squadran by Rowland White

Having read the excellent Vulcan book by the same author, I thought this one sounded like it could only be a let down from that story. So I bought it on my Kindle, and was pleasantly surprised. The context is of the use of Ark Royal using her Bucaneer aircraft to face-down a potential invasion of Belize. The author does a good job of describing the ship, the logistics of the operation, and the wider historical context of the time - that of Britain becoming a diminishing power and the decision to scrap the future carriers. Even though the operation was nothing more than a show of force (fly a long range mission to spend a few minutes circling the city), it acted as a deterrent to an invasion. The technical details of the ship and operations are very detailed, and makes you realise how complex carrier operations must be. Also in the days before GPS, planes having to use inertial navigation to dead reakon their position and intented movement of the carrier. The last part of the book focuses on 1982, when there was just two Harrier based carrier to send to the South Atlantic and wondering if the invasion would have taken place if more air power could have been taken down there. Of course we are building two new carriers, a completely bizarre decision - more so than the original cancelling of future carriers. One will end service in ten years, one will be mothballed or sold on completion as it's cheaper to build than to cancel.

Ebook read: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Conan Doyle

The third of the four full length Sherlock novels and perhaps the most famous with the most adaptations. The writing style has really developed by this stage, less concentrating on introducing Sherlock and more plot and case solving.

It contains a famliar ruse of Sherlock using Watson as a decoy so that he can do his own detective work on the moors - that would have been the twist in the plot in its day but the countless adaptations of this story mean it is telegraphed a bit too quickly.

Still a good story, and a difficult case for Sherlock to solve.

It is interesting to note that this novel represents almost a ten year gap between the Sign of Four. It was written and serialised in 1901.

Ebook read: The Sign of Four by Conan Doyle

The second of the four main Sherlock novels, published a couple of years after the first. Holmes and Watson now presented as established companions and some strong hints of Holmes' self destructive nature for stimulants and drugs to fuel his over active brain.

The case he has to solve is actually presented as a break from such behaviour. The client Miss Morstan also appears to be a rather weak romantic link for Watson - Holmes being far too clinical to ever consider a client as anything other than a part of the puzzle.

The story of a murder as with the first novel unravels to far away places, this time India - probably a much easier subject for the author to write about compared to America in the first novel. The novel is well paced, but you can see some bits coming given the subsequent ubiquitous nature of Holmes in later stories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sign_of_the_Four

Ebook read: A Study in Scarlet by Conan Doyle

I used the guttenberg site to download the original short story to feature the legendary Sherlock Holmes. I had read it many years ago and it was interesting to read again. Conan Doyle was only 27 when he wrote this work in three weeks, while working as a Doctor in Portsmouth Southsea.

The book is both an introduction to the central characters of Holmes and Watson, really their first meeting as well as a description and solving of a crime. It has quite a tirade against the Mormon religion, and one part of the book is devoted to describing the background of the murder over in America.

I imagine that at the time this would have been quite difficult to research and write about, and America must have seemed like an exotic and far away place.

Wikipedia has a good summary of the books' background:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Study_in_Scarlet