An ancient book that has baffled experts for decades may be an elaborate hoax, it has been revealed. The centuries-old Voynich manuscript, which dates back to the middle ages, was long thought to contain a secret code and cyptographers have spent years trying to decipher the mysterious text. However, one expert now claims that simple techniques could have been used to fool people into thinking that the bizarre text was actually written in code. Many experts argue that the text contains similar features to natural languages, suggesting that it may be a code. However, Gordon Rugg, a computing expert at Keele University claims to have worked out a simple system that produces similar results in a new study.