Review by Win Wiacek

After decades of cruel injustice and crushing, sidelining silence, British mathematician Alan Turing, one of the greatest intellects in humanity’s history, has at last become the household name and revered pioneer of science he has always deserved to be.

As well as books and films describing the amazing achievements and appalling way this brilliant, misunderstood man – arguably the creator of the modern world we inhabit – was treated by society, there’s now a second graphic novel (see recommendations for the first). It delineates the factual stuff whilst trying to get beneath the skin of a most perplexing and unique individual.

This gloriously oversized (231 x 13 x 287 cm) full-colour hardback biography – also available as an e-book – was first released in Europe as Le Cas Alan Turing in 2015 and employs an emphatic literary approach, more drama than documentary.

A moving script by author Arnaud Delalande – via award-winning translator David Homel – only touches on Turing’s early, troubled home life and post-war scandals as the genius descended into self-loathing and court-mandated chemical castration to “cure” his “social deviancy”. Allegations or accusations of homosexuality destroyed many men until officially decriminalised in Britain’s 1967 Sexual Offences Act, and although Turing was posthumously pardoned in 2013 his loss to suicide probably deprived the entire world of a generation of marvels.

The major proportion of this tale concentrates on World War II and Turing’s work as a cryptographer and inventor at British code-breaking centre Bletchley Park. The insular young man struggles to convince his officious, unimaginative superiors to let him construct a mechanical brain to defeat the Wehrmacht’s presumed-infallible Enigma machines. Turing’s victories cemented his reputation and ensured that the battle against fascism was won.

The key figures are all there: sometime fiancé Joan Clark, Professor Max Newman, and the weak, shady rent-boy who brought about Turing’s eventual downfall and demise. So are less well known figures: the MI5 operative who was his constant shadow before and after the war, boyhood lost love Christopher Morcom and many other unsung heroes of the intelligence war.

Played out against a backdrop of global conflict, Turing’s obsession with Walt Disney’s Snow White and a recurring motif of poisoned apples – the method by which the tormented soul ended his life – figure largely in a tale reading like a movie in the making. Moreover, this power of an outsider’s temporary triumphs and lasting impact is beautifully and compellingly rendered by master of historical comics Eric Liberge, affording it an aura of unavoidable, impending destiny.

Balancing out the tragedy of chances missed is an informative photo-illustrated essay on ‘The Cryptography War’ by historian, educator and government consultant Bruno Fuligni. It details the development and use of different kinds of cipher and codes, how Enigma changed the rules of the spying game and how Turing changed it all again.

This is an astoundingly effective way to engage with a true story of incredible accomplishment, dedication and terrifying naivety, one that ends with horrific loss to us all and forever-unanswered sentiments of “What If?” and “If Only”…