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GCHQ Puzzle Challenge 2 – Harry’s Hint

Books with twist endings

a. A schoolboy and his two friends thwart a plan to steal some deep musings on the meaning of existence.

b. As one world ends and another begins, conflict arises over the sole remaining iPad.

c. A group of boys stranded on an island fight over the right to organise their paperwork.

d. In a dystopian future, an oppressed woman struggles to be punctual.

e. A prison guard extends his life by eating fresh fruit.

f. A man undertakes a series of journeys with a large fish.

g. Two rival footballers, born on the same day but from very different backgrounds, battle for supremacy.

h. A man undertakes a four-week walk through Africa but doesn’t take any tinned meat.

i. A solider engages in a war-time romance but is ultimately forced to flee the red planet.

Wartime recruitment to the Government Codes and Cypher School was necessarily shrouded in mystery, but one of the stars of the show was the Times crossword. The “crypt” in cryptanalyst and cryptic crossword is not a coincidence and several of the codebreakers at Bletchley were recruited for their crossword speed. Here the devious minds at GCHQ Puzzle Central pose some devious cryptic clues to popular books (in some cases also films). Can you figure out each twist and name them? Some of them will be more familiar to older readers so we have colour coded them for difficulty.

Once you have solved it, post your time on the Forum.