Ada Lovelace: Computer Wizard of Victorian England

by Lucy Lethbridge

Daughter of the famous romantic poet Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace was a child prodigy. Brilliant at maths, she read numbers like most people read words.

Lady Byron wanted Ada to be as unlike her father as possible. Ada grew up surrounded by an army of tutors who taught her every subject every waking moment, except for poetry.

In 1843 Ada came to the attention of Charles Babbage, a scientist and inventor who had just built a miraculous machine called the 'Difference Engine'. Ada and Mr Babbage started working together – a perfect partnership which led to the most important invention of the modern world: the computer!

Short Books is re-releasing some of its finest writing as a newly designed series of six children's biographies called The Great Victorians.

These are entertaining and engaging stories of some of history's most fascinating characters. They tell history in a novelistic, engaging way, a halfway house between storybooks and traditional history. There is abundant humour and drama too.

With beautifully designed covers these books will catch the eyes of parents as well as children.

49 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2017

About the author

Lucy Lethbridge has written numerous books, as well as writing articles for the Observer, the Sunday Telegraph, the Independent on Sunday, the Times Literary Supplement, Art News, and Art+Auction. She lives in London.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short read covering Ada Lovelace's life and her work with Charles Babbage on his 'difference engine' which is considered to have lead to the invention of the computer.

My daughter read this first for our library summer reading challenge and then I read it after as I knew little of Ada Lovelace. I enjoyed the autobiographical details of Ada's unusual life and personally, my daughter found it hard to imagine what exactly the difference engine was and how this could lead to computers, she couldn't see the connection as Ada lived nearly 200 years ago. This book would really have benefited from some factual information and some illustrations and explanations at the end. I would love to have seen some photographs of where they lived or some prints of portraits of this family. I enjoyed reading about Ada and I think this book is a good introduction.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative
And very easy to read
Loved it