The Cracking Code Book: How to make it, break it, hack it, crack it

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It is a rich account of the shadowy side of military strength and of the men and women whose work was, in the words of the US navy, of ‘immeasurable importance in the successful prosecution’ of the Pacific War. The GCHQ staff were sporty, providing most of the players in the Foreign Office football team that won the Civil Service Football Cup in 1952. The Da Vinci Code succeeds in distilling deep symbolism, turgid religious history and out-there theories into an exciting, easily digested, page-turning thriller, the second in Brown’s Robert Langdon series. Cryptography can seem like a daunting subject, but in this book Elonka and Klaus have made it understandable, approachable, and most of all: fun! As a major hint to would-be codebreakers, the story behind the code is often as important and compelling as a code itself, and Dunin and Schmeh never fail to deliver with each code they examine.

It produces much more and more trustworthy information than spies, and this intelligence exerts great influences upon the policies of governments. Sinclair McKay is the London-based literary critic for the Telegraph and the Spectator and is the author of The Secret Life of Codebreakers and Bletchley Park Brainteasers. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. Amongst many extraordinary examples, Simon Singh relates in detail the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her own code and put to death by Elizabeth I; the strange history of the Beale Ciphers, describing the hidden location of a fortune in gold, buried somewhere in Virginia in the nineteenth century and still not found; and the monumental efforts in code-making and code-breaking that influenced the outcomes of the First and Second World Wars. But when they discover a secret message in an old book, that says: ‘Mary Jordan did not die naturally’, the mystery has very much found them.

There are a selection of coded messages at the back for you to try out your new code-cracking skills if you like.

The Code Breaker describes a dance to the music of time with these things as its steps, which began with Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel and shows no sign of ending. Some of the answers are in the form of an expression of several words rather than one word so be warned even experienced codebreaking regulars like me might find themselves frustrated. Their superb book includes over 100 examples of historical ciphers, with explanations of how many were solved, and others for enthusiasts to unravel.

They do the intellectual heavy lifting that will engage any reader in the science and art of encryption. The Code Breaker unfolds as an enthralling detective story, crackling with ambition and feuds, laboratories and conferences, Nobel laureates and self-taught mavericks. If your kids loved our cool secret codes for kids printables and activities they will love these awesome code breaker stories, non-fiction, and activity books.