A Grand Gossip: the Bletchley Park Diary of Basil Cottle, 1943-45

This is a very rare survival - a contemporary diary from Bletchley Park, kept by a man for whom conversation was the essential oil of daily life, both inside and outside the office. Basil Cottle arrived at Bletchley Park in September 1943, after medical discharge from the Army. He worked in Hut 6 (Block D) on Enigma material, staying on after VE day to work on Albanian, before a long career at the University of Bristol. Well aware of BP security rules, Cottle usually refers only obliquely t...