A Computer Called LEO: Lyons teashops and the world’s first office computer by Georgina Ferry, Fourth Estate, £15.99, ISBN 1841151858 Reviewed by Wendy M. Grossman
BUY a computer from a tea shop? It’s startling to discover that the first computer to really run a business was developed by Lyons, purveyor of lunches, good tea and cakes in salubrious surroundings in English cities and towns. And yet, as Georgina Ferry makes plain, the fact that the computer named LEO was designed by people who had specific business needs they were trying to meet was what made it work. That, and the kind of brilliant, inspired computer designers…
