Speak Of Me... Historical Note
IE, where I geek out and go 'Isn't history cool, guys?!' So. Here goes.
Most of the people and places here are fictional, but since the true history of SOE is at least as interesting as anything I could come up with, a few of the real people involved made it into the story along the way.
Alan Turing gets mentioned a couple of times in connection with Spock’s codebreaking work at Bletchley Park. Turing was a Cambridge mathematician, generally held to be the father of modern computers. During the Second World War, he was stationed at Bletchley, working on decrypting the German’s Enigma machine. The Enigma was a highly sophisticated coding device, supposed by the Germans to be unbreakable. In fact, the basic Enigma was broken fairly soon, due in large part to Turing’s work. After the war, he was prosecuted for homosexuality, found guilty, and offered the choice of imprisonment or chemical castration. He chose the latter, but became so depressed, it is widely believed he took his own life with an apple covered in cyanide. The Apple logo is commonly though to be in recognition of his groundbreaking work in computational mathematics. (Although maybe not.)
Andrew Hodges’s biography is absolutely fantastic - if you’re interested in cryptography, the Second World War, or gay history, check it out. Also, anyone who likes Doctor Who, there’s an Eighth Doctor Adventure called The Turing Test in which Turing and the Doctor team up to Fight Crime, I mean, Crack Codes. It’s rather awesome.
The ‘Mr Marks’ referred to in connection with one-time pads was in charge of Beaulieu’s cryptography. When I say that Beaulieu was way behind Bletchley Park, that’s completely true. The poem codes were in use for long after it became clear they weren’t all that good. Leo Marks composed his own poetry for agents and advocated the use of one-time pads, which were eventually adopted.
He’s written a book called Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker’s War, which by all accounts is very good, though I haven’t been able to get hold of a copy yet. (It’s on my to-read list.)
Olsen’s advice to ‘kick him in the bollocks’ is shamelessly stolen from one of SOE’s real instructors, Fairbairn, who later went on to train OSS agents at Camp X.
All the places used are real, apart from Bourg-Saint-Justine and Abrosets, because it was easier to invent places with all the necessary geographical details than to trawl Google maps for them. The history of the Savoy region during the war is quite interesting - though officially in the Free Zone, it was first occupied by Mussolini’s forces, then, when the Italians signed an armistice, by the Germans. Occupation by Ian Ousby is a great book about life under the Occupation. (Not that the title gives it away or anything.)
Les Français parlent aux Français was a real programme on the BBC. It featured speeches by de Gaulle (in exile in London at the time), music and general entertainment things. Its aim was to keep the French people fighting during the Occupation and, as I've used it, to pass messages to field agents. There are some clips on Youtube, for anyone who's interested. Not that I'm in any position to pass judgement on other people's French accents, but Roosevelt speaking French is sort of hilarious.
A really excellent book about life at Beaulieu is Beaulieu: Finishing School for Secret Agents by Cyril Cunningham, who was himself an SOE agent in the war. Basically, everything I know, I learnt from that and a BBC book called Secret Agent: The True Story of the Special Operations Executive by David Stafford. A programme on the History channel, Churchill’s Spy School, kickstarted the whole thing. Very interesting, and if it happens to be showing any time soon, definitely worth watching.
Having said all this, I’m fairly sure I’ll have messed up on the historical accuracy somewhere down the line. If you spot it, let me know. If it’s something that can be changed without needing a full rewrite, I’ll gladly do it. I do realise I’m bending reality a little bit by having all the preliminary training done at Beaulieu, but it started to get unreasonably complicated when I tried moving things around. Sebastian Faulks Does It More Right in Charlotte Gray.
Most of the people and places here are fictional, but since the true history of SOE is at least as interesting as anything I could come up with, a few of the real people involved made it into the story along the way.
Alan Turing gets mentioned a couple of times in connection with Spock’s codebreaking work at Bletchley Park. Turing was a Cambridge mathematician, generally held to be the father of modern computers. During the Second World War, he was stationed at Bletchley, working on decrypting the German’s Enigma machine. The Enigma was a highly sophisticated coding device, supposed by the Germans to be unbreakable. In fact, the basic Enigma was broken fairly soon, due in large part to Turing’s work. After the war, he was prosecuted for homosexuality, found guilty, and offered the choice of imprisonment or chemical castration. He chose the latter, but became so depressed, it is widely believed he took his own life with an apple covered in cyanide. The Apple logo is commonly though to be in recognition of his groundbreaking work in computational mathematics. (Although maybe not.)
Andrew Hodges’s biography is absolutely fantastic - if you’re interested in cryptography, the Second World War, or gay history, check it out. Also, anyone who likes Doctor Who, there’s an Eighth Doctor Adventure called The Turing Test in which Turing and the Doctor team up to Fight Crime, I mean, Crack Codes. It’s rather awesome.
The ‘Mr Marks’ referred to in connection with one-time pads was in charge of Beaulieu’s cryptography. When I say that Beaulieu was way behind Bletchley Park, that’s completely true. The poem codes were in use for long after it became clear they weren’t all that good. Leo Marks composed his own poetry for agents and advocated the use of one-time pads, which were eventually adopted.
He’s written a book called Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker’s War, which by all accounts is very good, though I haven’t been able to get hold of a copy yet. (It’s on my to-read list.)
Olsen’s advice to ‘kick him in the bollocks’ is shamelessly stolen from one of SOE’s real instructors, Fairbairn, who later went on to train OSS agents at Camp X.
All the places used are real, apart from Bourg-Saint-Justine and Abrosets, because it was easier to invent places with all the necessary geographical details than to trawl Google maps for them. The history of the Savoy region during the war is quite interesting - though officially in the Free Zone, it was first occupied by Mussolini’s forces, then, when the Italians signed an armistice, by the Germans. Occupation by Ian Ousby is a great book about life under the Occupation. (Not that the title gives it away or anything.)
Les Français parlent aux Français was a real programme on the BBC. It featured speeches by de Gaulle (in exile in London at the time), music and general entertainment things. Its aim was to keep the French people fighting during the Occupation and, as I've used it, to pass messages to field agents. There are some clips on Youtube, for anyone who's interested. Not that I'm in any position to pass judgement on other people's French accents, but Roosevelt speaking French is sort of hilarious.
A really excellent book about life at Beaulieu is Beaulieu: Finishing School for Secret Agents by Cyril Cunningham, who was himself an SOE agent in the war. Basically, everything I know, I learnt from that and a BBC book called Secret Agent: The True Story of the Special Operations Executive by David Stafford. A programme on the History channel, Churchill’s Spy School, kickstarted the whole thing. Very interesting, and if it happens to be showing any time soon, definitely worth watching.
Having said all this, I’m fairly sure I’ll have messed up on the historical accuracy somewhere down the line. If you spot it, let me know. If it’s something that can be changed without needing a full rewrite, I’ll gladly do it. I do realise I’m bending reality a little bit by having all the preliminary training done at Beaulieu, but it started to get unreasonably complicated when I tried moving things around. Sebastian Faulks Does It More Right in Charlotte Gray.