"The Code Book" is a book written by Simon Singh and published in 1999. The book is a history of cryptography, the practice of creating and breaking codes and ciphers. The book covers the history of cryptography from ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptians and the Greeks, to modern times and the advent of computers and the internet. It covers many famous historical figures and their contributions to the field, such as Mary Queen of Scots, the Enigma machine and Alan Turing.
The book is written for a general audience and aims to make the complex subject of cryptography accessible to a wide range of readers. It also includes explanations of many different types of codes and ciphers, as well as the mathematical concepts behind them.
"The Code Book" has been widely praised for its clear and engaging writing style and its ability to make a complex subject interesting and accessible to a wide range of readers. It has won several awards, including the "Aventis Prize for Science Books" and the "Longman-History Today Book of the Year Award". It has also been adapted into a television series.