It's high time we investigated…

We're all worried about them these days: spies. They're in your email, they're reading your tweets…heck, they're probably rooting in your dustbin. It's an international menace made of alphabet soup: NSA, CIA, KGB (or whatever they're called these days), MI5, -6, -7, -8…not to mention the Bundesverfassungsschutz and possibly Wikileaks. Phew! How to keep it all straight?

Fear not, friends: the Edited Guide is here with fun facts to know and tell. After all, we never signed the Official Secrets Act. And if they ever put one of us in The Village, why, we'd just blog our way out…

See if you can answer these spy-related questions from the Edited Guide.

1. Who is the handsome man in our picture?
   
   • 007.
   • Number Six.
   • The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
   • Maxwell Smart.
2. The Cold War period meant that spies were in high demand. What famous locale in Berlin featured prominently in spy novels?
   
   • The Friedrichstrasse Bahnhof.
   • Ice Station Zebra.
   • The Siegessäule.
   • Checkpoint Charlie.
3. Okay, US readers, see if you can get this Cold War question as well as the Brits: what renowned UK institution of higher learning produced a set of spies who did a lot of damage to security by leaking secrets to the USSR?
   
   • The London School of Economics.
   • Oxford.
   • Cambridge.
   • Hogwarts.
4. If you sign your documents with 'K', who are you?
   
   • James Bond's boss.
   • The MIB's pug dog.
   • The head of MI5.
   • The head of MI6.
5. If his 'bowtie was really a camera', what kind of camera did the 'man in the gabardine suit' probably use?
   
   • A Minox.
   • A Nikon.
   • A Leica.
   • An Olympia.
6. Here's a question for the true cognoscenti: what code word is used by the CESG at GCHQ to designate an attempt to keep electronic data secure?
   
   • TEAPOT DOME.
   • ULTRA.
   • ENIGMA.
   • TEMPEST.
7. Spies go back further than the Cold War, of course. In what war was Dorothy O'Grady of the Isle of Wight accused of misusing her pet dog for spying purposes?
   
   • World War I.
   • World War II.
   • The Crimean War.
   • The Irish War of Independence.
8. Speaking of spies of yesteryear, which Elizabethan playwright is most commonly accused of being a sort of 16th-century James Bond?
   
   • William Shakespeare.
   • Ben Jonson.
   • Christopher Marlowe.
   • John Webster.
9. We, er, do realise that the UK is not the only country with covert operations, right? Occasionally, even the US gets involved. What does the abbreviation DSS stand for?
   
   • Diplomatic Security Service.
   • Department of Security Surveillance.
   • Democratic Sovereignty Support.
   • Distinctly Sinister Spies.
10. 'To remain in ignorance of the enemy's condition, simply because one grudges the outlay of [money], is the height of inhumanity.' What historical wiseacre said that about hiring spies?
    
    • Machiavelli.
    • Winston Churchill.
    • Admiral Canaris (head of the Abwehr).
    • Sun Tzu.

Think you were 'in the know'? Let the Guide read you into the answers by clicking the pic below.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

08.07.13 Front Page

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