In this guest blog, Professor Kate Loveman, author of The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary (2025), introduces Samuel Pepys, his shorthand diary, and efforts to decipher it.
Author: The Dickens Code
The murder of Morris Price – a new shorthand mystery
What the Dickens? Our decoders have been asked to consult on Gurney shorthand related to a nineteenth-century Canadian murder case! Help us crack the code to be in with a chance of winning a 1-year membership for the Charles Dickens Museum!
Deadline: 2 May 2025
Solution to the Winter 2024 Challenge
Check out the results of our latest challenge here!
Solution to the September-October 2024 Challenge
Check out the results from our latest challenge here!
Winter 2024 Challenge: Fragments from Notebooks E and F
Join us to decipher some fiendish fragments from Notebooks E and F!
Deadline: 31 January 2025
Solution to the August 2024 challenge
Check out the results from our latest challenge here!
September-October 2024 Challenge: Final Pages of Notebook D!
Join us for the final challenge based upon Arthur Stone’s Notebook D!
Deadline: 31 October 2024
Solution to the July 2024 challenge
Check out the results from our latest challenge! Can you identify the source of the unidentified text discovered by the Dickens Decoders?
August 2024 challenge: Notebook D continued
Our work on Notebook D continues, with just a couple of challenges to go! Download an entry form and have a go!
Deadline: 6 September 2024
Solution to the June 2024 challenge
In our June challenge, the Dickens Decoders identified two more pages of dictation from Sydney Smith’s ‘I would not live always’ – and another two without an identified source text. Find out more and download a line-by-line transcript here!