Charles Dickens Leicester codebreakers honoured at awards

The researchers' great expectations were rewarded

Researchers who asked the public to help them decipher some of Charles Dickens's coded manuscripts have been honoured for their work.

The famous author wrote many notes in a personalised form of shorthand.

The Dickens Code project, led by the University of Leicester's Dr Claire Wood, sought help to solve the mystery.

Dr Wood has now won a Times Higher Education Award for the project, which saw more than 1,000 volunteers from across the world come forward.

The project prompted a worldwide effort by academics and the general public to decode Charles Dickens's handwritten notes.

With their help, the project decoded one of his papers known as the Tavistock letter, which was written in Dickens's own brand of adapted shorthand, which he called The Devil's Handwriting.

The university, in collaboration with the University of Foggia in Italy, took home the Research Project of the Year trophy for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the awards.

Dr Wood said she was "beyond thrilled" with the award

The judges described the project as an "inspirational development of a small-scale research problem".

Dr Wood, of Leicester's School of Arts, said: "I am beyond thrilled to accept this award on behalf of the Dickens Code team.

"It is testimony, both to the enduring global interest in Dickens's life and works, and to the efforts of the Dickens Decoders, who approached the challenges of Dickens's mysterious shorthand with such imagination and tenacity."