Backlash after Alan Turing novel makes major change to gay codebreaker’s life
The novel depicts Alan Turing having sex with a woman. (Getty)
The novel depicts Alan Turing having sex with a woman. (Getty)
A historical fictional novel based on Alan Turing is facing criticism for depicting the gay codebreaker fathering a secret child with a woman.
The Turing Protocol is a fictional novel from author Nick Croydon, which depicts an alternate history of the British mathematician.
Published by Affirm Press in July, the thriller envisions a timeline in which Turing constructs a time machine to send a message enabling the Allied forces to succeed on D-Day. During the events of the book, the computer programmer has sex with Joan Clarke and secretly fathers a child.
In reality, while Turing was briefly engaged to Clarke – his colleague at Bletchley Park who was involved in his vital code-breaking work during the Second World War – he was convicted on ‘gross indecency’ charges with a man in 1952 and was chemically castrated. Just two years later, at 41, he died by suicide.
While the book does depict Turing as gay, its reimagining of his story has prompted overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics and readers.
Of the 115 ratings on GoodReads at the time of reporting, 64 per cent give the novel 1 out of 5 stars. Reviewers have described it as “one of the worst things I’ve ever read.”
“Anyone who is aware of Alan Turing and his prosecution will be scratching their head in disbelief,” one review reads.
Another wrote: “[Turing] deserves a lot better than this. Using real figures but keeping them at a distance to establish setting is one thing, writing how Alan Turing, a gay man, experiences having sex with a woman is something else entirely.”
Acknowledging the backlash, Croydon, who is also the CEO of QBD Books – the largest bookshop chain in Australia – argued the book does not ignore Turing’s sexuality.
He told The Australian that giving Turing a child was necessary for his plot, adding: “I wrote this novel as a tribute to him. I wanted to highlight the genius that he was, but also the injustice he suffered.”
The book is currently QBD’s fiction book of the month and is being actively promoted by the chain, according to The Guardian.
Turing was famously pardoned by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013 after former prime minister Gordon Brown described his treatment as “appalling.“
His work at Bletchley Park helped to crack the highly complex Enigma Code used by Nazi Germany during World War II, both aiding the Allies in the fight against fascist occupation and laying the foundations for personal computing.
