Project leads

Claire Wood is a Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University of Leicester. She is the author of Dickens and the Business of Death (Cambridge University Press) and the Secretary of the Dickens Society. Much of her research explores Dickens’s life and fiction. With a background in public engagement, Claire is passionate about bringing new audiences to Dickens’s work – in this case, through a process of co-discovery.

Hugo Bowles is an Applied Linguist and lives in Rome, Italy. He is the author of Dickens and the Stenographic Mind (Oxford University Press) and an Honorary Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham. As a huge Dickens fan and lover of puzzles, codes and ciphers, he thinks that the Dickens Code is a great way of indulging in his favourite hobbies and sharing them with the public.
Academic network
The project is supported by a network of academics with expertise in different areas, including Dickens Studies, Forensic Linguistics, Digital Humanities, Informatics, Stenographic Studies. Our core network includes:
- Emily Bell (University of Leeds)
- Douglas Dodds (Deciphering Dickens)
- John Drew (University of Buckingham)
- Leon Litvack (Queen’s University Belfast, The Charles Dickens Letters Project)
- Kelly McCay (Harvard University)
- Andrea Nini (University of Manchester)
- Pete Orford (University of Buckingham)
- Tim Underhill (Independent)
- Huiyu Zhou (University of Leicester)
We would also like to acknowledge the contributions made by the following people to our ‘Decoding Dickens: Contexts, Approaches, Inspirations’ symposium and the development of different aspects of the project:
Luca Bowles (logos); Emma Curry (Deciphering Dickens); Gowan Dawson (University of Leicester); Honghui Du (University College Dublin); Mel Evans (University of Leeds); Dominic Gerrard (actor); John Hodgson (John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester); Azza Hussen (University of Leicester); Yasmin Jogi (University of Leicester); Hywel Jones (website); John Jordan (UCSC, Dickens Project); Frankie Kubicki (Charles Dickens Museum, London); Aine McNicholas (Deciphering Dickens); Bob Nicholson (Edge Hill University); Ross Parry (University of Leicester); Philip Schofield (University College London); Joe Shemtov (Free Library of Philadelphia); Dominic Stoltz (Saxon State and University Library Dresden); Xinyu Yang (University of Leicester)
Find out more about our public network of ‘Dickens Decoders’ here.
Image credits
Photo of Claire courtesy of Stuart Hollis; photo of Hugo courtesy of Luca Bowles