Codebreaker Roberts' autobiography to History Press

The History Press has acquired the autobiography of Bletchley Park codebreaker Jerry Roberts, to publish in March 2017.

General history publisher Sophie Bradshaw bought world rights from Heather Holden-Brown at hhb Agency Ltd.

Roberts was part of a team of linguists and mathematicians who broke the Lorenz coding machine during the Second World War, a complex and secure machine which was used by Hitler himself.

Roberts died in 2014, but his widow Mei kept his account of his recruitment to Bletchley and the extraordinary moment the code was broken.

Bradshaw said: “The History Press is delighted to be publishing this fascinating story – Lorenz was in every way the bigger brother to Enigma. What Jerry Roberts and his colleagues achieved at Bletchley was one of the most significant events in codebreaking history.”

Journalist Paddy O’Connell, a friend of Mei and Jerry Roberts and whose own mother worked at Bletchley Park, said: “Jerry Roberts was part of the small team responsible for breaking Hitler’s most secret code at Bletchley Park from early 1942. He was one of the key investigators at the Nuremberg Trials. But he was sworn to secrecy for most of his life. In his book he lifts the lid on how the Lorenz cipher machine played a vital role in intercepting messages from the highest level of German command.”

Lorenz: Breaking Hitler’s Top Secret Code at Bletchley Park will be published in hardback for £20 on 8th March 2017.