Charles and Ada: the computer’s most passionate partnership by James Essinger
The partnership of
Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace was one that would change science
forever.
They were an
unlikely pair – one the professor son of a banker, the other the
only child of an acclaimed poet and a social-reforming mathematician
– but perhaps that is why their work is so revolutionary.
They were the
pioneers of computer science, creating plans for what could have been
the first computer. They each saw things the other did not; it may
have been Charles who designed the machines, but it was Ada who could
see their potential.
But what were they
like? And how did they work together? Using previously unpublished
correspondence between them , Charles and Ada explores the
relationship between two remarkable people who shared dreams far
ahead of their time.
His non-fiction
books include Jacquard's Web (2004), Ada’s Algorithm
(2013), which is to be filmed by Monumental Pictures, and
Charles and Ada: the computer’s most passionate partnership
(2019) His novels include The Mating Game (2016) with
Jovanka Houska, the film rights of which have been optioned,
Rollercoaster (2019) and The Ada Lovelace Project
(forthcoming in 2020).
