Table of Contents

1: On Being Mysterious
2: From Anagrams to Cryptic Crosswords
3: Talking in Riddles
4: Ciphers and Codes
5: Biblical Secrets
6: Words of Power
7: Words to Avoid
8: Jargon, Slang, and 'Secret Languages'
9: The Everyday Oblique
10: Elusive Allusions
11: Finale
Appendix: answers to the problems
Select Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Barry Blake taught at La Trobe University for many years. He is an expert on all aspects of language and a well known authority on Australian Aboriginal languages. His most recent book, All About Language was published by Oxford University Press in 2008.

Reviews

`Review from previous edition 'Secret Language' will delight anyone willing to while away a lazy afternoon, crossword in hand.'
Kerstin Hoge, Times Literary Supplement
`An enthralling survey.'
Jonathan Sale, The Independent
`What we have here is a wonderful weekend read.'
The Times
`A serious wolf of a book about linguistics wrapped in the sheep's clothing of frisky pleasure in the originality and versatility of words.'
The Times
`The subtitle is both accurate and cryptic, and provides only a hint of just how intriguing and diverting a book this isPart of the fascination of the book comes from noticing how often these modes of concealment resemble one another, or bleed togetherIt is good to have a book that gives you something to ponder without being ponderous itself. And it can be recommended in particular to anyone disposed to find language itself, as such, a source of
pleasure.'
Scott McLemee, writing in nside Higher Education