Frances Tew is a Dickens Decoder. She has taught Teeline shorthand for twenty years to students on journalism courses. In the second of two blogs she explains how we teach shorthand today and reflects on Dickens as a shorthand teacher.
Author: The Dickens Code
November 2023 Challenge: Beginning Notebook D
For our November challenge, we’re starting Arthur Stone’s Notebook D. What new mysteries will we discover? Download an entry form and find out!
Deadline: 4 December 2023
Shorthand today
Frances Tew is a Dickens Decoder. She has taught Teeline shorthand for twenty years to students on journalism courses. In the first of two blogs she tells us what modern shorthand is all about.
Chinnery Summer Transcription Challenge: Solutions
This summer, the Dickens Decoders turned their attention to another user of the Gurney shorthand system: the artist George Chinnery (1774-1852). Check out the results and download a transcript here.
Chinnery shorthand: Some snakes and ladders
Our Chinnery summer transcription is proving something of a ‘staggerer’. In a second guest blog, V&A research fellow Patrick Conner provides some help, explaining how Chinnery used shorthand in his sketches, as well as recurring phrases and signs and potential pitfalls.
Chinnery Summer Transcription Challenge
This summer, we’re taking a break from decoding Dickens and turning attention to another user of the Gurney shorthand system: the artist George Chinnery (1774-1852). Can you crack Chinnery’s shorthand annotations?
Deadline: 15 September 2023.
Charles Dickens, George Chinnery, and Gurney shorthand
What did Charles Dickens and the artist George Chinnery have in common? Both were practitioners of Gurney’s Brachygraphy shorthand. Find out more about what connects these two fascinating figures in a guest blog by Patrick Conner.
‘Easter Nonsense’ aka ‘All privileges…’ transcript
The ‘Easter Nonsense’ challenge has turned out to be a critique of hereditary privileges. Read the text and download a transcript here.
Past events
Find out more about past Dickens Code events