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1929: Two women meet at Bletchley Park but the real secrets are the ones they bring with them…
Secrets At Bletchley Park
What you need to know before your trail
Two young women from very different backgrounds meet in the Second World War and are plunged into a life where security and discretion are paramount. But both have secrets of their own to hide . . .
In 1929, life for ten-year-old Mattie Price, born and raised in the back streets of Sheffield, is tough. With a petty thief for a father and a mother who turns to the bottle to cope with her husband’s brutish ways, it is left to the young girl and her brother, Joe, to feed and care for their three younger siblings.
Victoria Hamilton, living in the opulence of London’s Kensington, has all the material possessions that a young girl could want. But her mother, Grace, a widow from the Great War, is cold and distant, making no secret of the fact that she never wanted a child.
Mattie and Victoria are both set on a path that will bring them together at Bletchley Park in May 1940. They can tell no one, not even their families, about their work or even where they are. But keeping secrets is second nature to both of them . . .
Travel Guide
Discover the world of Bletchley Park
The setting of this story is the very real and fascinating estate and country house at Bletchley. Situated in Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire) it became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. There are several huts where the code breakers worked including those in the novel. Work was that secret, people in one hut didn’t know what the others in the other huts were doing.
During World War II, this was where the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) worked from. The people here would eventually go on to solve Enigma. Perhaps the most famous of these was Alan Turing. The nature of the work there was secret until many years after the war.
In the novel you get a good view of what the girls who came from all walks of life ended up doing and how vital their work was. The nature of the work and the daily routine of working in such a place is fascinating and this story and the characters bring it to life.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Secrets at Bletchley Park
Destination/location: Bletchley Park Author/guide: Margaret Dickinson Departure Time: 1929
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