Alan Turing short story sheds new light on WW2 codebreaker

Novel analysis reveals playful side of Alan TuringImage source, PA MediaImage caption, Prof Sarah Dillon studied Alan Turing's short story, Pryce's BuoyByAimee DexterPublished4 hours agoA story written by World War Two codebreaker Alan Turing suggests he was a man with playful humour embracing his homosexuality, according to new analysis.The six-page hand-written short story, Pryce's Buoy, has been transcribed and studied for the first time by Sarah Dillon, professor of literature at the University of Cambridge.Dillon said the story offered fresh insights that challenge the view of Turing as an isolated, lonely genius. "We've distilled a version of Turing that is a two-dimensional stereotype," she added.Turing played a crucial role in the Allies' victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two by helping to crack codes and deciphering the infamous Enigma machine at Bletchley Park.After the war he produced a detailed design for a digital computer in the modern sense, storing programs in its memory.Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Turing worked at Bletchley Park in World War Two and helped to break German codesIn the new research, Pryce's Buoy, which was previously unpublished, has been printed in full, with Dillon believing he wrote it in late 1952 or early 1953.The tale involves Ron Miller, a working-class sex worker, and Alec Pryce, a gay scientist famed for an invention known as 'Pryce's buoy'.On Turing, she said: "He's come to be seen as socially unaware, entirely concerned with logic and numbers, and pretty isolated."His short story reveals a very different man: playful, funny, cheeky, literary, and someone who really liked sex."Image source, PA MediaImage caption, The story was hand-written by Turing himselfDillon said she believed the story was a direct fictionalisation of a sexual encounter in the 1950s which led to Turing's arrest.Turing was convicted of gross indecency in 195...