Affirm Press has acquired UK, ANZ, India, South Africa and European English-language rights to CEO of QBD Books Nick Croydon’s upcoming novel, The Turing Protocol, via The Story Factory’s founder Shane Salerno. 

Nick has twenty-five years of experience in many segments of the Australian and international retail, publishing and media industries. His debut novel has been widely praised with Trent Dalton saying the book is ‘a wildly imaginative distortion of deeply researched historical fact, forming a ripping tale of past-careens-into-present fiction’, while Dervla McTiernan said The Turing Protocol is ‘a fascinating alternative history with an intriguing “what if” at its core’. Other authors, including Chris Hammer, Megan Rogers, Candice Fox, TJ Newman and Don Winslow, have also endorsed the book.

For readers of Dan Brown, Matthew Riley and Fiona McIntosh, The Turing Protocol blends historical fact with fiction to tell the extraordinary story of a machine that allows the user to send messages to the past – and may just save the future.

In the midst of World War II, Enigma codebreaker Alan Turing has created a machine named Nautilus that can send a message back into the recent past. After Turing uses it to help the Allied forces succeed on D-Day, he sees the power – and potential danger – of what he has created. He knows he can only entrust it to one person: Joan, the mother of his secret child.

Over the next seventy years, the Nautilus is passed down through the Turing family, who all must decide for themselves when to use this powerful invention. Will it save the world - or destroy it?

Nick said: ‘I’m extremely excited to publish my debut novel, The Turing Protocol, and its sequel with Affirm Press in ANZ and with the larger Simon & Schuster family in the UK and Commonwealth.’

Simon & Schuster UK Deputy Publishing Director Katherine Armstrong said: ‘Nick has blended historical fact and fiction to create an exciting thriller that, at its heart, is a love song to the great conspiracy novels. We are delighted to be collaborating with our colleagues at Affirm Press and publishing The Turing Protocol in the UK later this year.’

Affirm Press Publishing Director Cate Blake said: ‘For decades now as a bookseller, Nick Croydon has been building and sharing his wisdom about what delights and inspires readers. Now, he’s applied that wealth of knowledge and experience to this extraordinary thriller. The Turing Protocol is a race through the biggest moments of the 20th and 21st centuries, a captivating page-turner with a powerful moral dilemma at its heart. We’re thrilled to have Nick’s talents in the Affirm stable.’

The Turing Protocol will be published by Affirm Press in August 2025.