It's a great story isn't it Ella?! I first heard about it when I was 6 and have been obsessed ever since. There's definitely a non-fiction kicking around my brain, I've been using Substack as a testing place for the stories I've found. Thank you for the encouragment! xx
It's so cool isn't it Jane?! I first read about it in a "reading comprehension" exercise when I was 6 or 7 and made it my life's mission to visit the museum! I have been thinking about a non-fiction and testing those stories here on Substack. Need to figure how the structure of non-fiction works!
Hi Kinga! There's a great article about some of the different ways that escape tools were smuggled into prisons. Things like books, playing cards and Monopoly boards were used as cover, alongside pencils. There were (unspecific) methods to get intelligence to the prisoners as well, so they would know to search anything that arrived. A month into the operation targeted at prisoners the rate of attempted escapes more than tripled. Here's the link with more info: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-millions-of-secret-silk-maps-helped-pows-escape-their-captors-in-wwii
And, thanks to you, writers of historical fiction have this lovely, yet almost unbelievable device they can sneak into their stories and books about this period of history!
Charles Fraser Smith, the man behind the pencil (and lots of other gadgets) is rumoured to have been Ian Fleming's inspiration for Q in the James Bond stories! So devices inspired by him have been snuck into books and films!
This is excellent and I shall be repeating this to everyone I know until I embarrass myself by trying to tell someone I’ve already told 3 times earlier. So fab!
Oh Laura-Kati! That's so lovely to hear! I think that might be the most exciting thing about this story - that something so normal and ordinary could be so extraordinary! ✏️✨
This is AMAZING Nanette! What a fabulous story! Are you going to turn it into a children’s book? X
It's a great story isn't it Ella?! I first heard about it when I was 6 and have been obsessed ever since. There's definitely a non-fiction kicking around my brain, I've been using Substack as a testing place for the stories I've found. Thank you for the encouragment! xx
<chanting DO IT, DO IT!>
😆
Oh, I agree! It'd be a great children's book!
Ah thank you, Juliana! That's so encouraging to hear! ☺️
You should definitely do a secret pencil book! That pencil really captured my imagination too at the marvellous Pencil Museum!
It's so cool isn't it Jane?! I first read about it in a "reading comprehension" exercise when I was 6 or 7 and made it my life's mission to visit the museum! I have been thinking about a non-fiction and testing those stories here on Substack. Need to figure how the structure of non-fiction works!
If you can find a way to tell it like a story but include all the facts it's a win! Looking forward to reading more pencil stories here...
Thank you Jane, that's a useful tip! I'm certainly having fun researching the pencil stories!
What a fantastic story!!
It's a really exciting story isn't it Ine!?! Makes you see pencils in a different light!
This is fabulous!
It was such an interesting story to dig around in!
This is such a great series! I didn’t know this pencil story either. And now I want to visit the Derwent Pencil Museum.
The spy pencils remind me of the silk maps I saw at the Spy Museum in Washington D. C.
Now I really want to visit the Spy Museum in Washington DC!
The Derwent Pencil Museum is a real treasure! It's only one room but they pack a lot of interesting pencil trivia in there!
The maps were a whole other interesting story, especially as silk became harder to get hold of as ww2 went on
What a fabulous story!! Here’s hoping you’ve got many more like this ☺️🤞
So glad you enjoyed it Kate! I keep finding fascinating stories about pencils, so definitely more to come! 😆✏️
Great story. And I love Derwent pencils!
My question is : how would the prisoners know to break the pencil?
Also - is it known if anyone managed to to escape that way?
Hi Kinga! There's a great article about some of the different ways that escape tools were smuggled into prisons. Things like books, playing cards and Monopoly boards were used as cover, alongside pencils. There were (unspecific) methods to get intelligence to the prisoners as well, so they would know to search anything that arrived. A month into the operation targeted at prisoners the rate of attempted escapes more than tripled. Here's the link with more info: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-millions-of-secret-silk-maps-helped-pows-escape-their-captors-in-wwii
And, thanks to you, writers of historical fiction have this lovely, yet almost unbelievable device they can sneak into their stories and books about this period of history!
Charles Fraser Smith, the man behind the pencil (and lots of other gadgets) is rumoured to have been Ian Fleming's inspiration for Q in the James Bond stories! So devices inspired by him have been snuck into books and films!
This is excellent and I shall be repeating this to everyone I know until I embarrass myself by trying to tell someone I’ve already told 3 times earlier. So fab!
Hahah! I'm constantly telling people this story, I half expected to get comments going yeh,yeh, we know... geez, find a new story! 🙊
THIS IS SO COOOOOL
Ahhh! It is a great story isn't it Katie!? I bet your Cameron would be all yeah I know that story, here's an amazing historic photo of the pencils!
Love this story thanks for sharing!
It's so exciting isn't it Heather! Love that you love it too!
Such an amazing story, reading it first thing on an ordinary Sunday morning just made my morning a bit less ordinary, thanks so much 😊
Oh Laura-Kati! That's so lovely to hear! I think that might be the most exciting thing about this story - that something so normal and ordinary could be so extraordinary! ✏️✨