A recently transcribed short story by Alan Turing, the celebrated mathematician and codebreaker, offers a stark contrast to his public image as an isolated and awkward figure. The unfinished manuscript, titled 'Pryce's Buoy,' was handwritten by Turing between 1952 and 1953 and, according to experts, reveals a "playful, funny, cheeky, literary, and someone who really liked sex."
Professor Sarah Dillon of the University of Cambridge, who led the transcription and analysis of the story, stated that Turing has often been portrayed as a "two–dimensional stereotype," characterized by social unawareness and an exclusive focus on logic and numbers. "His short story reveals a very different man," Dillon said.
IMAGE2 The story follows a homosexual scientist named Alec Pryce, a character believed to be a fictionalized version of Turing himself, and his encounter with Ron Miller, a working-class rent boy. The narrative details Pryce's exhaustion from Christmas shopping and his decision to seek companionship, leading to a lunch meeting where Turing captures Miller's pragmatic outlook on intimacy: "Bed's bed whatever way you get into it."
Dillon noted the story's exploration of the "hesitancy" and "uncertainty of potential sexual encounter," highlighting a moment of worry about misreading a situation.
IMAGE3 The story abruptly ends mid-sentence with the words "Ron wouldn't," leaving its conclusion unknown. Dillon expressed frustration over the missing narrative, speculating whether Turing's mother may have censored it or if it devolved into more explicit content. "We don't know where the rest of it went," she said.
IMAGE4 The character of Alec Pryce, according to Dillon, likely alludes to Turing's own life. The story includes Pryce's habit of "parading his homosexuality" and joking about his invention, "Pryce's Buoy," by suggesting it was "spelt without the 'u'." Dillon believes the story is undoubtedly linked to a late 1951 sexual encounter that led to Turing's arrest on charges of "gross indecency."
Following his conviction in March 1952, Turing underwent hormone treatment as a form of chemical castration. This treatment rendered him impotent and caused gynecomastia, the development of breast tissue. Turing died in 1954 at the age of 41 from cyanide poisoning, a death ruled a suicide.
"Turing died when he was only 41, and in those years running up to his death, he was trying to understand himself and his world," Dillon explained. "Literature offered him a really powerful way of doing that. This was the moment when he really felt a release, a chance to be more creative and playful."