Time To Read

BIOGRAPHY

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterley

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family take off for the island of Corfu. But the Durrells find that, reluctantly, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna - among them scorpions, geckos, toads, bats and butterflies. A charming account of an eccentric family, written with warmth and a very English sense of humour!

Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South, this is the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African American women mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program . A truly inspiring biography of five extraordinary women whose personal stories are deeply entwined with wider historical movements: the Civil Rights movement, the Space Race, and the Cold War.

Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges

Taken on by British Intelligence in 1938 as a shy young Cambridge don, Alan Turing combined brilliant logic with a flair for engineering. In 1940 his machines were breaking the Enigma- enciphered messages of Nazi Germany’s air force. He then headed the penetration of the super-secure U-boat communications. Turing's far sighted plans for the digital era forged ahead into a vision for Artificial Intelligence. However, in 1952 his homosexuality rendered him a criminal and he was subjected to humiliating treatment. Mr Gormley says: “This biography does justice to Turing’s ground -breaking wartime achievements and reveals the tragedy of his persecution in the 1950s.”