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.
Challenges
Letter to Richard Bentley: Fill in the gaps challenge
Our challenge for May 2023 aims to ‘fill in the gaps’ in a partially transcribed letter to Victorian publisher Richard Bentley.
Deadline: 31 May 2023
Easter ‘Nonsense’ Challenge
Can you help us complete transcription of Arthur Stone’s Notebook A? This time the sentences may not be connected to one another, so we’ll need to treat them as separate items. Download an entry form here and give it a go!
Deadline: 30 April 2023
‘Didactic’
‘Didactic’ means ‘intended to instruct’ – but what does Dickens want to teach his pupil Arthur, here? Let’s find out!
Deadline: 3 March 2023
Christmas Special: Fill in the Gaps Challenge
‘Here is a new game’, as Scrooge puts it in A Christmas Carol. For our Christmas Special, we’re inviting decoders old and new to have a go at ‘filling in the gaps’ and solving the symbols that have so far eluded us. Can you crack these ‘impossible’ symbols?
Deadline: Midnight, 31 January 2023.
‘Sunday night’ part I
This month our shorthand page has a longhand date, rather than a longhand title. What does this suggest about the type of document we might be dealing with? Download an entry form and have a go!
Deadline: 30 November 2022
‘Travelling’ part III
Where will these ‘travels’ take us? Help us to find out by taking part in our #SolveItDickens challenge for October, which focuses on the third part of ‘Travelling’.
Deadline: 31 October 2022
‘Travelling’ part II
Our September #SolveItDickens challenge turns to the second part of ‘Travelling’. How does the text continue? We’ll need to transcribe the shorthand to find out!
Deadline: 3 October 2022
‘Travelling’ part I
Our August #SolveItDickens challenge focuses on ‘Travelling’ part I. What is this shorthand dictation exercise about? Is it a travelogue or something else? We’ll need to transcribe the text to find out!
Deadline: 2 September 2022
‘Anecdote’ part II
Our July #SolveItDickens challenge focuses on ‘Anecdote’ part II. How does this story end? We’ll need to transcribe the text to find out!
Deadline: 31 June 2022