Foreword to the First Edition

Summary

This book contains almost all the essential material for the biography of a very remarkable man, who died tragically in June, 1954, in the prime of his life and in the middle of research which may still prove to be even more original and important than the finished work which had brought him so much honour and fame. Alan Turing's mother, who has assembled and written this record of his childhood and his mature achievements, believes that his death was accidental. The explanation of suicide will never satisfy those who were in close touch with Alan during the last months and days of his life, however much the available evidence may point to it, and in the future the possibility of accident will be considered by those in a better position perhaps to decide the truth. But even if his death was not chosen by him, he was a very strange man, one who never fitted in anywhere quite successfully. His scattered efforts to appear at home in the upper middle class circles into which he was born stand out as particularly unsuccessful. He did adopt a few conventions, apparently at random, but he discarded the majority of their ways and ideas without hesitation or apology. Unfortunately the ways of the academic world which might have proved his refuge, puzzled and bored him; and in return that world sometimes accepted him wholeheartedly (I remember ShaunWylie's saying “He was a lovely man: never a dull moment”) but often felt puzzled by his remoteness.