By Angela Youngman Mar 7, 2010, 16:13 GMT
One of the most fascinating non-fiction books I have come across for a long time. Informative, detailed yet never so heavy in content that it is overwhelming or gets boring to read.
This is a global study of the history and mystery of coded information and how codes have been used by many different societies from Taoist mysticism to alchemy, Enigma, cockney rhyming slang, makers marks, genetic codes, mathematics and the Beale papers.
Extremely comprehensive, it looks at codes in its widest sense from humans earliest origins to the codes of the digital age including the unwritten codes of behaviour that govern how we live in society.
It looks at how codes and ciphers work, why they were invented and how they were cracked. Well illustrated with some stunning photography such as the incredible pictures of the Rosslyn chapel - a place familiar to anyone who has read the Da Vinci Code. This is a book for browsing, dipping in to sections which immediately appeal - and then finding there is yet more to discover, from unexpected quarters.
A book to keep and use as reference; it will appeal to writers, historians, soldiers and many others who have even a passing interest in codes.
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