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How did German intelligence agents use a dead fish to convey critical information to their operatives? What did an advertisement for a dog in the Times have to do with the movement of British troops into Egypt? And why did British officers suddenly become suspicious of the trousers hanging on a Belgian woman’s washing line? Throughout World War I, spymasters and their networks of secret agents developed many clever – and sometimes comical – methods of covert communication. Stacks of bread in a bakery window, puffs of smoke from a chimney, and even woollen pullovers were all used to pass on secret messages that were decipherable only to the well-trained eye.

Melanie King will share some of these clever and long-forgotten ruses, interspersed with the stories of the spies themselves.