50 Codes that Changed the World: . . . And Your Chance to Solve Them!

by Sinclair McKay

There have been secret codes since before the Old Testament, and there were secret codes in the Old Testament too. Almost as soon as writing was invented, so too were the devious means to hide messages and keep them under the wraps of secrecy.In 50 Codes that Changed the World , Sinclair McKay explores these uncrackable codes, secret cyphers and hidden messages from across time to tell a new history of a secret world. From the temples of Ancient Greece to the court of Elizabeth I; from antique manuscripts whose codes might hold prophecies of doom to the modern realm of quantum mechanics, you will see how a few concealed words could help to win wars, spark revolutions and even change the faces of great nations.Here is the complete guide to the hidden world of codebreaking, with opportunities for you to see if you could have cracked some of the trickiest puzzles and lip-chewing codes ever created.-----------------------Praise for Sinclair McKay's 'This book [The Secret Life of Bletchley Park] seems a remarkably faithful account of what we did, why it mattered, and how it all felt at the time by someone who couldn't possibly have been born then. - THE GUARDIAN[Bletchley Park Brainteasers] is outrageously difficult but utterly fascinating. - THE EXPRESS'Sinclair McKay's account of this secret war of the airwaves in [Secret Listeners] is as painstakingly researched and fascinating as his bestselling The Secret Life Of Bletchley Park, and an essential companion to it.' - DAILY MAIL

Genres: Nonfiction

388 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 13, 2022

About the author

Sinclair McKay writes regularly for the Daily Telegraph and The Secret Listeners and has written books about James Bond and Hammer horror for Aurum. His next book, about the wartime “Y” Service during World War II, is due to be published by Aurum in 2012. He lives in London.
-Source

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and quite enlightening as to the secret codes used throughout time. Some are still being tried to be broke, while others are still being used. Some were basically language before the use of the alphabet we now have. Symbols, mostly. But the codes used during wars are rather intriguing, how they were created, and how they managed to, for the most part, remain viable.
I won’t say I’m a Robert Langdon now, but I did figure out a few of the puzzles they had.

[Lisa Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

I seem to have purchased several of this style books over the last two months. I am on a puzzle solving kick. Perhaps the heat has drained away all my concentration with my sweat. It was fun to tackle hidden messages and see if I could break the code.