Editor's note

On Wednesday June 8 1870, Charles Dickens was working on his novel Edwin Drood in the garden of his country home in Kent. He came inside to have dinner with his sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth, and suffered a stroke before dying the next day. The days that followed have long been the subject of Dickensian folklore and speculation. He had left detailed final wishes to be “buried in an inexpensive, unostentatious and strictly private manner”. So how did he end up in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey and not in a small graveyard near his country home? It was “the will of the people”, or so the official story goes.

But the truth has finally been revealed by Dickensian sleuth Leon Litvack who has delved into the archives and cathedral vaults, finding letters and documents which show another side of history. His forensic investigation reveals, for the first time, how Dickens’s biographer and friend John Forster conspired with the Dean of Westminster Abbey, Arthur Stanley, to clinch a “fitting” celebrity funeral. It may have been against the writer’s will and his family’s wishes, but it made a good ending for Forster’s book, gave Poets’ Corner a much needed boost and is an early example of celebrity myth-making in action.

Speaking of myth-making, have you ever wondered how the most successful businesses achieve their amazing results? According to Chegwei Liu’s new research it has a lot more to do with luck than you might think.

We also have a story about how the humble mushroom could revolutionise the construction industry’s green credentials.

Paul Keaveny

Commissioning Editor

Top stories

Dickens After Death, John Everett Millais, June 10 1870. Charles Dickens Museum

Charles Dickens: newly discovered documents reveal truth about his death and burial

Leon Litvack, Queen's University Belfast

How two ambitious men put their own interests ahead of the great writer and his family in an act of institutionally-sanctioned bodysnatching.

Shutterstock/FotograFFF

Huge success in business is largely based on luck – new research

Chengwei Liu, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick

Ignore business books which promise to reveal the secret formula of success – usually it's down to luck.

Hy-Fi, The Living, MoMA. Jessica Sheridan/Flickr

How fungi can help create a green construction industry

Ian Fletcher, Leeds Beckett University

Our climate is changing – and so must architecture.

Education

Arts + Culture

Science + Technology

Environment + Energy

Politics + Society

 

Featured events

For Sama

Room SLB/118, Spring Lane Building, Campus West, York, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of York

Stressed out? Stress, work stress and physical symptoms

Room RCH/037, Ron Cooke Hub, Campus East, York, York, YO10 5GE, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of York

Shakespeare’s Rivals II: Ben Jonson - Saturday

Blackbox Theatre, Theatre, Film and Television Building, Campus East, York, York, YO10 5GB, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of York

Wonders on Wednesday 2 - Public Health

Yorkshire Room, JB Morrell Library, Campus West, York, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of York

More events
 

Contact us here to have your event listed.

For sponsorship opportunities, email us here