Reflections of Alan Turing: A Relative Story

by Dermot Turing

A new perspective on Alan Turing, his family and his legacy - written by his nephew

Everyone knows the story of the codebreaker and computer science pioneer Alan Turing. Except … When Dermot Turing is asked about his famous uncle, people want to know more than the bullet points of his life. They want to know everything – was Alan Turing actually a codebreaker? What did he make of artificial intelligence? What is the significance of Alan Turing’s trial, his suicide, the Royal Pardon, the £50 note and the film The Imitation Game ? In Reflections of Alan Turing , Dermot strips off the layers to uncover the real story. It’s time to discover a fresh legacy of Alan Turing for the twenty-first century.

Genres: Biography, Science, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

Published May 23, 2023

About the author

British solicitor and author. Nephew of Alan Turing.

Reviews

[Cidney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a brilliant book, Alan Turing will be forever remembered as the man who cracked the enigma code, despite whatever Dermot Turing would want you to concentrate on.

I started this book thinking hang on this is written by his cousin but it sounds as if he wants to "downgrade" Alan's status in the world of science, maths and computing, it had the feel of sour grapes about it, everything sounded as if he thought little of his cousin's achievements. Even as I finished the book I'm still not sure if Dermot actually liked and appreciated all the memorable work which Alan Turing had actually done.

Enjoyed the book nevertheless!

[Janet Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me realise how little I know of the real Alan Turing. Many of us have built up an imoression around the novelistic Imitation Game & a narrow knowledge of his achievements. Reflections of Alan Turing shows how wide his work was in mathematics and morphogenesis as well as computer technology. It makes you question what you are told and realise how much we accept other's views of history without researching the background for ourselves. As Dermot Turing says, we also need to rethink what his legacy should be.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dermot Turing is Alan Turing’s nephew, and he’s also known for being something of an authority on the great mathematician’s life. That makes this book an interesting read, and one that’s packed full of information that the casual reader might not have been aware of, but some of it was a little too in-depth for me. For example, while Dermot argues that understanding the Turing family’s colonial history in India is important for grasping the background that Alan grew up in, it was also a little bit over the top.

Still, there was plenty of great stuff here about the father of modern computer science, and if you’re looking to learn more about Turing without having to read Andrew Hodges’ excellent but extremely dense biography then it’s a decent place to start. I came away feeling as though I know more about Turing than when I started, but I don’t know how much of it is just from family gossip.

Regardless, Turing is an extremely important man and someone who we all should know a lot more about. So this is still worth reading.

[Jonathan Garvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal book. Clears up a lot of the nonsense from the Imitation Game, which is still a good movie to be fair. Dermot (Alan's nephew) really pieces together the life of Alan and writes it in a way as to appeal to the historian, computer scientist, student, and anyone with a curious mind. To go into detail would result in spoilers (it is a reflection after all).

The book itself doesn't take long to read. Quite enjoyable, and I couldn't put it down.

[Miguel Vilá · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to see Turing in a more nuanced light, this book is highly recommended.

There's a slight digression at the beginning about the Turing family. I guess that's expected given the author, but it feels unjustified. This book also shows nuance about Turing's role during the war, something that's probably covered by other biographies, but might bear repeating. My favourite part was the stuff related to artificial intelligence, something that Turing began talking about. Some of his theoretical work is overlooked, but maybe that's not the intention of this book.

[Eirlys · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging book

An informative, and yet fascinating book about Alan Turing written by a relative of his. I learned a lot about him, especially since I didn't know much about him previously. I was impressed by the scope of his affects on computers, and how he gave credit to the colleagues who were part of his team.

[David Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read giving a new perspective on Alan Turing.

[Laura Carroll · Rating 3 out of 5]

i felt that this was more of rant by Turings nephew. some interesting background but not Alan Turings reflections.

[Georgina · Rating 1 out of 5]

just couldn't get through this one

[Sherry Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise, but the science was overwhelming at times.
It was not what I expected.