Cryptographic Fairy Tales

In this collection of stories, Princess Alice is a fair maiden who (for reasons that develop along with the plot) has reason to send and receive messages between herself and Sir Bob, a gallant and trustworthy knight-errant, without them being intercepted, spoofed or otherwise interfered with, read or understood by the evil forces of Doctor Charles Signalàbruit.

In each chapter, Dr Charles employs a different method for attempting to circumvent Alice and Bob's correspondence, perhaps initially through simple methods such as copying Alice's handwriting, parchmentpaper, inks, or (much later) employing millions of elves to perform a brute-force cryptographic attack. Alice and Bob in turn, figure out some improved cryptographic methods for outfoxing their would-be surveillors.

While I'm skipping over the detail here, the stories themselves should concentrate on the motivations of Bob and Alice in terms of their continuing love-affair, making it as non-technical as possible. The increasingly complex efforts that Alice and Bob go to fall hand in hand with their rise up the political ladder, allowing other players, organisational themes and pitfalls to be worked into the story.

So structured, the story could act both as an instructional manual for the youth, as well as providing a useful narrative for aspiring cryptographers of a more venerable age.

I'd like to see other examples where technical detail is writ as narrative - if it hasn't already been tried, I think it could catch on.