This challenge is now closed. Many thanks to everyone who took part!
Deadline: 31 May 2022
In autumn 2021, the Dickens Decoders created a partial transcript for part I of ‘The Two Brothers’ – a shorthand exercise from the notebooks of Dickens’s shorthand pupil, Arthur Stone, at the Free Library of Philadelphia. This turned out to be a ghost story about ‘two old bachelor brothers’, living in Slough and London. You can find out more and download a transcript of the first page here. For the month of May, we’re challenging solvers to work on the second page of this exercise and find out more about how the story continues.

Use our ‘Resources’ to help you decipher the text. Remember that it is unlikely that you will be able to solve the whole text, but even one new symbol can be useful. Anyone who successfully describes a new symbol with be credited as its discoverer on our Roll of Honour.
Please complete the entry form below (available in .docx and .pdf format) and email us your suggested solves by 31 May 2022.
We will publish the results on 15 June 2022.