Simon Singh's "The Code Book" had been languishing untouched and unread on my bookshelf for a year. Yesterday I decided that I now had the time and the motivation to finally read it. And what a fascinating read it is too. Reading the first chapter this morning about the part that cryptoanalysis played in the trial and execution of Mary Queen of Scots, it occured to me that the events of the Tudor era may arguably have been the most significant of the last 2000 years in shaping modern Britain. Can we say that the rise and success of Protestantism in Britain was primarily driven by the desire of one man (Henry VIII) to engage in personal and political behaviour unfettered by the mores of the Catholic establishment in Rome? I must track down a good biography of Henry VIII and do some more reading around this period in history.