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The incredible true story of the only woman to have worked during
the Second World War as a codebreaker at both Bletchley Park and
the Pentagon   Betty Webb is the only surviving
codebreaker to have worked on both Nazi and Japanese codes at
Bletchley Park during the Second World War. This is the tale of her
extraordinary life. Betty has had a ringside seat to
history. Born one hundred years ago, she spent her childhood in the
Shropshire countryside during the 1920s – without heating,
electricity or running water. As a schoolgirl, thanks to her
mother’s desire for her to learn to speak German proficiently,
she took part in an exchange programme and spent time in Nazi
Germany. It was 1937 and Germany was on the cusp of war. As a small
act of rebellion, she refused to give the Nazi salute alongside her
classmates. Back in England, after graduating from school,
Betty faced the usual limited opportunities for employment on offer
to women at the time. However, with the war in full swing, fate
intervened and in 1941, wanting to play her part in the war effort,
Betty joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (Women’s Army).
After being interviewed by an intelligence officer, she found
herself at Euston station with her kit-bag, a travel warrant in her
pocket and instructions to get off the train at Bletchley Park.
There, having signed the Official Secrets Act with a gun laid next
to her on the table highlighting the enormous importance of the
work she was about to do, she joined the ranks of the other men and
women ‘codebreakers’. Between 1941 and 1945 Betty Webb
played a vital role in the top-secret efforts being made to
decipher the secret communications of the Germans and later the
Japanese. In 1945, as other members of the forces returned home
from the war in Europe, she was sent to the Pentagon and was in
Washington DC when the atomic bombs fell and when Eisenhower
announced the end of the war. Betty was unable to reveal the
true nature of her work, even to her parents, until years later. In
this fascinating book, she revisits the key moments of her life and
recounts the incredible stories from her time at Bletchley Park.
Four years after being exiled to Paris for disgracing the family
name, Alabama debutante Zoe Barlow is still reeling from the horror
of her ejection. Still, she's managed to create a new family among
fellow expats and artists, including Hadley and Ernest Hemingway.
When a valise containing all of Ernest's writings goes missing, Zoe
volunteers to help Hadley track it down. Unfortunately, the valise
leads to two murders-the train porter who stole the bag, and a
young woman rumored to be Anastasia Romanov-shot to death on the
edge of a small village. With much more at stake than the missing
manuscripts, Zoe risks everything she holds dear to find out who
among her adopted family is a murderer.
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