My World Book Day choice is a book called Codebreakers, a highly readable book on Room 40 and WW1 Codebreaking by James Willie and Michael McKinley (published by Ebury, 2015).
Codebreakers is a very interesting book on WW1, picked up in my local branch library (childhood habits die hard!) but certainly worth buying in paperback.
The book covers WW1 code breaking, cryptography, Room 40 and Naval Intelligence.
It covers naval and submarine warfare, Zeppelin raids, the Western Front and Ireland. It also features German espionage and sabotage in America and the legacy of WW1 codebreaking, after the interwar lapse, with the transition to WW2 codebreaking and breaking the Enigma codes at Bletchley Park.
Some remarkable characters are involved like Blinker Hall and larger than life authors who wrote in fictional form about their wartime espionage exploits such as A.E.W. Mason, author of The Four Feathers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._E._W._Mason
I should imagine there are probably lots of gaming scenarios in this book for different people, although building spies and (lack of ) Signals Intelligence into games can be a challenge.
The book covers less familiar areas such as the Middle East and after the Russian Revolution. An interesting passage on Lawrence of Arabia, desert codes, telegraph wires and railways on page 249 in Codebreakers is featured here on my occasional railway and gaming related Sidetracked blog.
It looks like there are several other similar titles out there on WW1 code breaking too, well worth buying or ordering through the library.
So that is my World Book Day Choice for 2018 – what are other gamers and other people reading?
Blogposted by Mark, Man of TIN blog, World Book Day 1st March 2018.
Man of Tin blog 
I’m still trying to finish up The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan so I can get cracking on my female authors only adventure for the month. Need to stop at the library on my way home….
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I look forward to hearing about your female authors – I must revisit the Bronte family / sisters juvenile fiction about Glasstown Angria and Gondal.
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I’m currently reading “The Lost Men” by Kelly Tyler-Lewis. You may have heard about Shackleton’s epic ‘Endurance’ expedition, but this is about the men who were landed on the other side of the continent. They had the task of setting depots of supplies for Shackleton to find as he crossed the continent. In reality, Shackleton never even set foot on the continent, so all their astounding efforts were in vain! Their own suffering and incredible survival story is the subject of this book. Half way through so far…
But with my Suburban Militarism hat on – “An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Uniforms of World War I” is keeping me entertained on these cold evenings.
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Just realised how appropriate the Lost Boys book is, given this week’s inclement weather!
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Thanks Marvin for the recommendation – looks a fascinating read and highly appropriate for the current weather. Hard to believe that some of this polar exploration with Navy crews was going on as WWI broke out. There are some interesting books on the Nazis and polar exploration as well in WWII.
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