Dickens, a secret revealed after a century and a half

After a century and a half, thanks to a competition launched by the University of Leicester, “the devil’s writing”, or the shorthand system used by Charles Dickens (and to which he refers in David Copperfield), has been deciphered.

Nothing witchcraft, mind you. That Dickensian devil was just a code he learned in his youth and became impenetrable over time, as the writer used it and, let’s say, perfected his work as a journalist.