Book description
The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
From the best-selling author of Fermat's Last Theorem, The Code Book is
a history of man's urge to uncover the secrets of codes, from Egyptian
puzzles to modern day computer encryptions.
As in Fermat's Last Theorem, Simon Singh brings life to an anstonishing
story of puzzles, codes, languages and riddles that reveals man's
continual pursuit to disguise and uncover, and to work out the secret
languages of others.
Codes have influenced events throughout history, both in the stories of
those who make them and those who break them. The betrayal of Mary Queen
of Scots and the cracking of the enigma code that helped the Allies in
World War II are major episodes in a continuing history of cryptography.
In addition to stories of intrigue and warfare, Simon Singh also
investigates other codes, the unravelling of genes and the rediscovery
of ancient languages and most tantalisingly, the Beale ciphers, an
unbroken code that could hold the key to a million treasure.
Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content
that appeared in the original print version. 'A fascinating meander
through the centuries; replete with tales of intrigue, political
chicanery, military secrecy and academic rivalry.'
The Times Simon Singh is a science journalist and TV producer. Having
completed his PhD at Cambridge he worked from 1991 to 1997 at the BBC
producing Tomorrow's World and co-directing the BAFTA award-winning
documentary Fermat's Last Theorem for the Horizon series. In 1997, he
published Fermat's Last Theorem, which was a best-seller in Britain and
translated into 22 languages.
