Can you answer these 10 cryptic brain teasers set by GCHQ code-breakers?
Spooks at GCHQ decipher complex codes and cryptic communications to help keep us safe and these tests from their second quiz book will test your own spy-Q
ARE you a whiz at cryptic crosswords or a dab hand at sudoku? Could you solve puzzles for a living?
Spies at GCHQ – the UK’s intelligence agency in Cheltenham – decipher complex codes and cryptic communications to help keep us safe.
During World War Two, its agents employed crossword enthusiasts at top-secret Bletchley Park to help crack the Germans’ codes.
Now in their second quiz book, the spooks set their own fiendish tests, ranging from World War One ciphers to modern cyber-security puzzlers.
Nick Prichard selects ten of the teasers.
1. What's the answer
A) What’s the first letter of the Greek alphabet?
B) What sort of rain did Guns N’ Roses sing about?
C) What Spanish word means a range of mountains?
D) What are Ardbeg, Glenfiddich and Talisker?
E) What nymph faded away until all that was left was her voice?
F) What Shakespeare character completes this answer?
2. Here comes the sun
What are the missing letters?
SUN _ _ _ _ _ SUN
3. Missed connections
(What specifically) connects these?
4. Spot the connection
Can you see how the following words are connected?
Chuckle, Double, Euro, Pro, Stereo, Super, Tunnel
5. Rhyme time
?ce, ?ass, ?ase, ?ace
6. Film outlines
Which movies are these?
7. Missing animals
Fill in the gap
Snake, Penguin, Dog,
Ant, ???, Crab
8. Identify the albums
9. Bond, James Bond
What comes next?
Goldeneye
Casino Royale
The Living Daylights
You Only Live Twice
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
???
10. Which UN country has a flag with no colours in common with the Union Jack?
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Answers
1) The answers spell out ANSWER in the Nato phonetic alphabet (Alpha, November, Sierra, Whiskey, Echo, Romeo).
2) MVEMJ (the question represents the solar system, with the right-hand side being the planets in order of their distance from the sun).
3) The Northern Line (the shapes represent Charing Cross, Leicester Square, Mornington Crescent and Oval, all stations on the London Underground’s Northern Line).
4) Can all be followed by VISION.
5) A, B, C, D (to make rhyming words Ace, Bass, Case, Dace).
6 A) The Searchers; B) Reservoir Dogs; C) Star Wars; D) Mamma Mia!; E) Psycho; F) Spider-Man; G) Spirited Away.
7) E.g. Spider (creatures with 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 legs respectively).
8 A) The Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd; B) Bat Out of Hell – Meatloaf; C) Misplaced Childhood – Marillion; D) Nevermind – Nirvana; E) Tubular Bells – Mike Oldfield; F) AM – Arctic Monkeys;
9) The Man With The Golden Gun (James Bond films with successively 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 words in the titles).
10) Jamaica.
- The GCHQ Puzzle Book II, Penguin, £12.99, ©Crown 2018, is out now.