Searching for Secrets in Shakespeare!

It’s ‘Shakespeare Week’ here in the UK and I know that in lots of schools around the country students, teachers and librarians are taking time to celebrate the wonderful work of one of the most famous writers on the planet. But did you know that Shakespeare may also have been a secret breaker?! There are people who believe that there are codes hidden inside some of Shakespeare’s plays and poems and I had so much fun when I was writing Secret Breakers finding out about them.

My research led me to all sorts of wonderful locations – including castles with hidden rooms and passages; abandoned mansions and even a house in the centre of London that is not a house at all!

Book Three of the Secret Breakers series, The Knights of Neustria is a pivotal part of the adventure and so it is packed full of codes and mysteries. There’s a fabulous treasure hunt and the characters in the story discover all sorts of secrets that are going to change everything!

The book also contains one of the most intriguing codes in the whole series. It’s called the Baconian Cipher. You can find out all about how to use it on the Secrets to Break section for Book Three on the Secret Breakers part of this website. Do check it out because you will also find an invitation for you to complete a code cracking challenge…and also some tempting information about how there might just be a code using the cipher hidden inside the pages of the book itself.

But to keep you in the mood for ancient ciphers, why not check out this crafty cipher wheel? There’s a very special cipher wheel in the story of The Knights of Neustria which was used to look for codes in Shakespeare’s work. But you can make your own cipher wheel using the instructions below! 

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy thinking about secrets hidden by Shakespeare and that you have lots of fun with your own secret breaking adventures!

Happy Shakespeare Week everyone!