Brains no longer needed if you want to be a spy – just colouring in

GCHQ launches its first book for children but says espionage is about more than just cracking puzzles

YOU don’t need to be top of the class to be a spy, the GCHQ chief has told children, as the agency publishes its first puzzle book for children.

Sir Jeremy Fleming, director of GCHQ, said it was a “myth” that everyone at Britain’s cyber spy agency is good at puzzles.

Marking the release of GCHQ’S first puzzle book aimed specifically at children, the agency has released a bonus brain-teaser that took more than a century to crack.

The Cheltenham-based intelligence agency hopes the quizzes, which follow two similar books aimed at adults, will appeal to future spies and highlight the value of thinking differently.

In the foreword to the book, Puzzles for Spies, Sir Jeremy says: “Having thoroughly baffled the grown-ups, we wrote this book especially for children.

“It’s a myth that everyone at GCHQ is good at puzzles, we are all different – that’s our greatest strength.

“People come to work for us from across the country, from all sorts of backgrounds. They work together, each offering their own perspective and way of thinking to solve difficult problems. The thing we all have in common is commitment to the security of the nation.”

The bonus puzzle was released to mark the publication of the book, and test the nation’s problem-solving skills.

Intelligence chiefs hope to inspire codebreakers, engineers, mathematicians and linguists of the future.

The book will test languages, engineering, codebreaking, analysis, maths, coding and cyber security, all key skills GCHQ says are needed to be a spy in its organisation.

The special puzzle is based on the four-colour theorem.

The theory, which dates from 1852, required sleuths to colour in a picture of a bowl of fruit, using no more than four colours, with no touching shapes having the same colour.

It took more than 100 years to find the answer, and was the first major theorem to be proved using a computer.

Colin, whose surname is withheld by GCHQ and who goes by the unofficial title of “Chief Puzzler”, said: “You don’t have to be a quiz champion – or even top of the class – to work at GCHQ.

“You just need to have an interest in figuring things out and an infectious curiosity. This is why so many of us are so fond of puzzles.

“We don’t spend all of our time putting together jigsaws and filling out crosswords, but creating and solving