We have our winners! Congratulations to Rich Dodgin, Andrew Hedgecock and Georgina Bruce who all successfully took on the challenge and win a copy of the book. I’ll leave this post up in case anyone still wants to have a go.
******
Hey, does anyone want to win a copy of Secret Language? Does you? Well we’ve got together with some top spymasters and boffins to create a fiendish code-cracking competition. First three people to correctly decode this Da Vinci-style cypher wins a copy of Secret Language in the ebook format of their choice.
Up for it? Okay, here’s how it works:
- The boffins have encrypted a SIMPLE ENGLISH PHRASE into mysterious gobbledegook using a straightforward substitution cypher. (That basically means that every letter of the alphabet is pretending to be a different one.)
- What you have to do is use the clues below to work out some of the letters, and then see if you can complete the phrase.
- One you have it, copy the following address into your browser: https://neilwilliamson.wordpress.com/ and add the decoded phrase (without spaces) to the end.
For example, https://neilwilliamson.wordpress.com/SECRETLANGUAGE (but it’s not going to be as easy as that!) - The first three people to email me what you see on the web page that takes you to is the winner.
The PHRASE is:
IAHVY IYHVURI XVR DNUYR JVUGGUXCY
And the CLUES are as follows:
- An easy one to begin with. My C starts the name of the wonderful people that make Secret Language possible
- My L takes the lead in the title of my aquarian contribution here (twice!)
- My N is the initial of the magazine whose issue 3 published Killing Me Softly
- My V sounds like the first syllable of a story that was shortlisted for the 2011 BSFA award
- My Q introduces my contribution here
- My Y makes up two thirds of the press that first published four of the stories in Secret Language
- My R should be all you need to solve this riddle (wrapped up in a conundrum, etc.) and have a beautiful day
ayeahmur 