Over the past few months I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see a resurgence of interest in the story of Bletchley Park, 2011 having been the 70th anniversary of the capture of the Enigma machine and codebooks. Back during my A-Levels I read Robert Harris’ Enigma in one breathless weekend, and the subject makes rich pickings for non-fiction, such as The Secret History of Bletchley Park.

What turned my mind to the subject the other day was the news that the bigwigs at GCHQ were trying a new method of recruiting maths genii and code-breaker prodigies and sorting them from the Spooks-wannabes. The website www.canyoucrackit.co.uk invites those who have the right stuff to decipher the word concealed behind the numeric coding. Those that crack it have the chance to apply for a real job in espionage.

Nice to know that the spirit of Bletchley lives on.

Lesley-Anne Crooks, Sales & Digital Manager