Saving Bletchley Park: How #socialmedia saved the home of the WWII codebreakers

Description

Imagine a Britain where the most important sites of historical significance are replaced with housing estates and supermarkets... Imagine a Britain without Bletchley Park, where Alan Turing and a team of code breakers changed the course of World War II and where thousands of women inspired future generations with their work in the fields of computing and technology... Now imagine a group of extraordinary people, who - seventy years after the birth of the modern computer at Bletchley Park - used technology to spark a social media campaign that helped secure its future and transform it into the world-class heritage and education centre it deserves to be. This is a story about saving Bletchley Park. But it is also the story of the hundreds of people who dedicated twenty years of hard work and determination to the campaign that saved it. It is a testament to the remarkable and mysterious work during World War II that made it a place worth saving. It is a book about campaigners, veterans, enthusiasts, computer geeks, technology, Twitter, trees and Stephen Fry stuck in a lift. And finally, it is a story about preserving the past for the generations of tomorrow.

Sue Black Saving Bletchley Park is Sue's first book. At the time of funding it was the fastest crowdfunded book in the world EVER! Dr Sue Black left home and school at 16, married at 20 and had 3 children by the age of 23. At 25, a single parent living on a council estate in Brixton, she decided to get an education. Sue studied maths at Southwark College, then gained a degree in computing and a PhD in software engineering at London South Bank University. In 2001 Sue set up the UK's first online network for women in tech, BCSWomen. It was this that led her in 2003 to Bletchley Park for the first time, and to starting her campaign to save it in 2008. Passionate about the way that technology and education can change lives Sue is now a social entrepreneur, "tech...", writer and public speaker who has won numerous awards including being one of the '50 most inspiring women in European tech'. Her start-up, #techmums works with disadvantaged families, teaching mums tech skills to empower them, build their confidence and get them excited about technology. Sue writes regularly in the UK national press about technology. Sue would love to know if you enjoyed readingSaving Bletchley Park, so please do tweet her @Dr_Black and let her know using the Twitter ID @savingbletchley. Stevyn Colgan Stevyn joined the police after a drunken bet with his father (also a policeman) on his 18th birthday that he couldn't stay in the force for six months. He stayed thirty years. He currently works as a writer on the popular BBC TV series QI and its sister show, The Museum of Curiosity, for BBC Radio 4. He's written briefing notes for two prime ministers, TV scripts for Gerry Anderson and Doctor Who, helped build dinosaur skeletons for the Natural History Museum and movie monsters for Bruce Willis to shoot at. He's also been set on fire twice, been kissed by Princess Diana once, and Freddie Mercury once wore his helmet. He is a creative consultant for Left/Field London, a visiting lecturer at a number of UK universities, and has given hundreds of talks across the UK and USA. He was a judge for the 2014 Transmission Awards for the Communication of Ideas. He stops inordinately frequently for tea.