‘From Bletchley, With Love’ - new exhibition in Hut 12 of Bletchley Park

Released : Jul 24, 2008

Ian Fleming acted as liaison officer between Naval Intelligence and Bletchley Park throughout the war. Sadly he died in 1964, ten years before the ban on talking about Bletchley Park was lifted. This exhibition tells for the first time the story Fleming could not tell his biographer.

On 24 July 2008, a visit to Bletchley Park by Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, marked the official opening, in Hut 12, of a very special new exhibition about Ian Fleming and Real Spies, Double Agents and Bletchley Park. The Royal couple, along with some specially invited guests, such as members of the Fleming family and some Bletchley Park veterans, admired the new exhibition and listened to a presentation in Hut 12 by Mavis Batey, Bletchley Park Codebreaker, on Ian Fleming’s War.

Ian Fleming’s favourite Churchill quote was, ‘In the high ranges of Secret Service work the actual facts in many cases were in every respect equal to the most fantastic inventions of romance and melodrama. Tangle within tangle, plot and counter-plot, ruse and treachery, cross and double cross, true agent, false agent, gold and steel, the bomb, the dagger and the firing party were interwoven in many a texture so intricate as to be incredible and yet true’.

Knowing the enemy’s secrets and keeping your own is a real war winner. In World War 2 codebreaking and the Special Intelligence derived from it played a major role in the allied victory in Europe. Ian Fleming, NID 17F, acted as liaison officer between Bletchley Park and the Director of Naval Intelligence throughout the war. The brand new ‘From Bletchley, With Love’ exhibition shows for the first time his involvement with the secrets of ENIGMA and ULTRA, which he was never able to reveal, but which formed the inspiration for the fantasy world of James Bond. Amongst other fascinating Fleming insights, the exhibition makes the startling revelation of who was Ian Fleming’s real-life ‘M’.

Truth really is stranger than fiction. This exhibition also tells the story of the subversive wartime world of double-cross agents. Espionage and counter-espionage. Deception and intrigue. Sabotage and extortion. And how it was all achieved with the help of intelligence gleaned from Bletchley Park.

Admission to the ‘From Bletchley, With Love’ exhibition is included in the normal admission price.

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