1. Alan Turing
David Boyle’s short biography follows Alan Turing from his early mathematical work through his decisive wartime contribution at Bletchley Park and his later thinking about computing and artificial intelligence. It explains why Turing’s theoretical work on computation mattered and how his cryptanalytic methods helped turn German…
2. Thomas Edison
This concise biography examines Thomas Edison’s rise from an experimental telegraph operator to one of the most prolific inventors and entrepreneurs of industrial America. Boyle follows the development of the phonograph, electric-light systems, motion-picture technology and the Menlo Park laboratory, while stressing that Edison’s achievements depended…
3. Rupert Brooke
David Boyle’s short biography examines Rupert Brooke beyond the idealised image created after his death in 1915. It follows his Cambridge and Bloomsbury connections, emotional relationships, travel and poetry, then traces the patriotic sonnets that made him one of the best-known literary voices of the opening…