Turing's Cathedral

George Dyson''s fascinating account of the early years of computers: Turing''s Cathedral is the story behind how the PC, ipod, smartphone and almost every aspect of modern life came into being.

In 1945 a small group of brilliant engineers and mathematicians gathered at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, determined to build a computer that would make Alan Turing''s theory of a ''universal machine'' reality. Led by the polymath emigre John von Neumann, they created the numerical framework that underpins almost all modern computing - and ensured that the world would never be the same again.

George Dyson is a historian of technology whose interests include the development (and redevelopment) of the Aleut kayak. He is the author of Baidarka; Project Orion; and Darwin Among the Machines.

''Unusual, wonderful, visionary'' Francis Spufford, Guardian

''Fascinating . . . the story Dyson tells is intensely human . . . a gripping account of ideas and inventionFascinating . . . the story Dyson tells is intensely human . . . a gripping account of ideas and invention'' Jenny Uglow

''Glorious . . . as much a story of the personalities involved as of the discoveries they made, and you do not need any knowledge of computers or mathematics to enjoy the ride . . . a ripping yarn'' John Gribbin, Literary Review