I didn't know much about the Enigma machine or the role it and codebreakers played in the Second World War - only the brief outline Dr Mark Baldwin told me in our interview ahead of his visit to Bridport Electric Palace at the weekend.

'Dr Enigma' Mark Baldwin is dedicated and passionate about sharing this part of history with others and has done nearly 1,000 shows and presentations on the Enigma machine. His interest was sparked by a book he came across as a bookshop owner and it has changed his life.

If I don't know much about a subject, I don't tend to research the subject before a show as I want to be left surprised and enlightened, not waiting for a piece of information to come up.

I was invited along to Dr Mark Baldwin's show at the Electric Palace, which was to delve deeper into this story, Bletchley Park and Alan Turing OBE FRS.

It can be quite difficult to keep an audience captivated with just a slide show and talking, Dr Baldwin kept everyone listening and wanting to find out more.

As well as going through the history of the coded message machine and explaining - in a way everyone could understand - how the Enigma machine worked, he told us about the Battle of the Atlantic and how that and the brave actions of the Navy allowed allied forces to get hold of a machine and the very important documents that were needed to operate it. And again when the Germans changed the type of Enigma machine they were using to send coded messages.

He went on to highlight the incredible work done at Bletchley Park and the scale of the operation, as well as the work undertaken by mathematician Alan Turing OBE FRS and some others of worthy note.

I won't give anything away as I recommend you go and see Dr Mark Baldwin talk on the subject if you have the opportunity, or pick up a copy of his book, 'The Enigma Machine, Bletchley Park & The Battle of The Atlantic' - which is what I have also done!

His passion for the subject really shone through, which kept your attention even if you knew nothing of the subject, and obviously inspired many in the audience, judging by the amount of people queuing to buy his book.

You can find out more about Enigma world expert Dr Mark Baldwin at drenigma.org

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