Christy Campbell unearthed an intimate link to Bletchley Park

01 Apr 2012

Christy Campbell : a Page in the Life
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Christy Campbell unearthed an intimate link to Bletchley Park while 
researching his new book, he tells Keith Lowe

By Keith Lowe

I meet Christy Campbell beside a derelict building, tucked away from the 
main road. It is one of those bright spring mornings where the endless 
blue of the sky is broken only by a few vapour trails - but even the 
freshness of the day cannot disguise the atmosphere of decay around us. We 
walk past a succession of buildings, all flaking paint and mottled 
brickwork. Suddenly, almost miraculously, we find ourselves standing 
before a small Victorian stately home. In such a context, dwarfed by acres 
of disused Forties architecture, it looks bizarre, like the setting for an 
episode of Doctor Who. It is, in fact, the manor house at Bletchley Park, 
the centre of Britain's wartime code breaking effort.

"It's amazing to think that a place like this prevented us from losing the 
war," says Campbell, gesturing towards some wooden huts. "It's just so 
wonderfully modest." He has a proprietorial air as he shows me around, and 
it is obvious that the connection he feels towards this place is more than 
merely professional.

As the author of a new book about V-weapons, Target London, Campbell came 
to Bletchley Park several times to conduct research. However, as he was 
finishing the book he accidentally discovered a much more intimate link: 
his late mother had worked here during the war..../snip/


- "Target London : Under attack from the V-weapons during WWII"
  by Christy Campbell

  LITTLE BROWN BOOKS GROUP
  Publication Date : 29-Mar-2012
  Hardback
  ISBN : 9781408702925


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9183098/Christy-Campbell-a-Page-in-the-Life.html

http://books.telegraph.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9781408702925