Alan Judd
Joining the Microdots
Prisoners, Lovers & Spies: The Story of Invisible Ink from Herodotus to al-Qaeda
By Kristie Macrakis
Yale University Press 377pp £18.99 order from our bookshop
Invisible ink or secret writing (SW, as it is known in the trade) has probably been used since not long after mankind learned to communicate in writing. Often viewed as the poor relation of its sophisticated sibling cryptography, it nonetheless thrived in the 20th century. Perhaps, with the recent decline of written communication, it will die out. Who, after all, sends letters in these days of texts and tweets and whatever? From the spy’s point of view (spies are overwhelmingly the users of SW) there’s always safety in numbers and to be one of the dwindling band of letter-writers might attract attention. But, as Kristie Macrakis indicates in this comprehensive history, SW is already quietly mutating into digital image-hiding.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'When the language starts functioning as a character in fiction, when it is there drawing attention to itself ... It’s not anything that anybody really takes seriously.'
Our interview with Anthony Burgess from 1983.
http://ow.ly/5u0y50yrjoO
'Sabotage became so prevalent that bankers even created their own terms – ‘asymmetric information’, ‘lack of financial literacy’, ‘the principal-agent dilemma’ – to describe how they might turn a dime from customers’ gullibility or ignorance.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/master-criminals-of-the-universe
'Unlike much that was extracted from India, these paintings were not plunder, and those who created them were properly remunerated and often received due credit.'
@PParkerWriting on 'Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/artists-for-hire