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Codebreaker - Introduction

 For some years I have been interested in codes and coding, ciphers - in fact the world of spies fascinates me. I love James Bond movies, and books by John le Carré, - one of my favourite books by him is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Over 20 years ago I joined a book club or two - the first was TSP - The Softback Preview, and the other was QPD - Quality Paperbacks Direct. With the first one I bought a book which I have read several times - and which I have recommended to quite a few people: Between Silk and Cyanide by Leo Marks. I got Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy from the second book club.

This love of all things codes and ciphers has helped me with another hobby - geocaching: some of the geocaches require you to work out a puzzle first, and quite a few of these puzzles have used codes or ciphers of one sort or another. Luckily there are some useful websites to help out with this (and an app or two) - one which is very useful is geocaching toolbox.

How far does my obsession with this go? Well, I was a language teacher - which I think ties in with codes, I love the film ‘Enigma’ and the BBC series of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (I have it on DVD), I’ve read numerous books about famous spies, and about code breaking too: E.g. The Science of Secrecy and The Code Book, both by Simon Singh, Enigma: The Battle for the Code by Hugh Sebag-Montifiore, Agent ZigZag and The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintire, The Secret Life of Bletchley Park by Sinclair McKay to name just a few. Give me a good puzzle to work out - and I am happy.

Oh - and did you know that an interest in code breaking can help with Wordle and Quordle?! It can - it is all about frequency analysis…which is why I have two specific words that I use each time with these games.

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