Secret LanguageCodes, Tricks, Spies, Thieves and Symbols
Barry J Blake
Focusing on arcane and curious aspects of language, Blake's intriguing book 'explores the reasons for obscurity and secrecy, and touches on some of the fascinating beliefs that underlie the constraints on using language freely'. He begins with word games and the former uses of anagrams and palindromes, then discusses topics including riddles, ciphers and codes, secret language in the Bible, allusion, and the 'everyday oblique' such as euphemism and oxymora.