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'' realityLed by the polymath émigré 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 kayakHe 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 te