Probably Random

Backroom Boys the secrect return of the British Boffin

April 22, 2008 10:33 am tonkas Books

Backroom Boys by Francis Spufford

An absolutely amazing collection of short stories, each delving into the way British Scientists have been at the forefront of technological and scientific revolution in the Post War (WWII) era.

My favourite is the Genome experiment with a race against time to beat a company who wanted to privatise the genome.

I think the book is aimed at an audience older than myself, perhaps more the authors age, with many references to Dan Dare, but this doesn’t stop it being interesting, informative and well written and researched.

As I said in an earlier post I visited Duxford whilst reading this which just added another level to the experience, getting on to the Concord there having just finished reading about the people and the trials of the teams designing and building the first prototypes.

I feel that there is the opportunity for an additional chapter on the British invention of asymmetric key encryption, but perhaps there is another book on the way (or you could read Simon Singh’s The Code Book available for free download)

If your interested in science, innovation, or just proud of British achievements you will enjoy this.