Prospects Postgrad 1

ARTS AND HUMANITIES Postgrad 57 Novel idea A serious motorbike accident prevented CAROL FENLON from completing a nursing degree but, after a long recovery, she took up a part-time job with the NHS and a Masters in Writing Studies at Edge Hill University. Since then she has published her first novel and is working towards a PhD. She shares her story with Postgrad. My first degree was BA in Applied Social Sciences, which I studied at Edge Hill College of Higher Education from 1978-1981 (now Edge Hill University). When I graduated I worked in a day centre for elderly women with learning disabilities, teaching basic skills. A few years later I returned to Edge Hill (Sefton School of Health Studies) to study for a diploma in nursing. A motorbike accident prevented me from finishing the course however, and after five years’ recuperation, I began work as a part-time NHS administrator. WRITING CLASSES I had started to write while nursing, following some writing classes I had attended and, in 1997, I began an MA in Writing Studies, again at Edge Hill. The MA course provided basic research skills and theoretical study at a deeper level than the undergraduate courses I had studied. Later on, when I was approaching retirement age, I thought about completing a PhD in Creative Writing. I saw a PhD as an opportunity to develop my writing and personal skills. I chose Edge Hill because it is a familiar institution. I already knew the supervisors I wanted to work with and Edge Hill’s English and Research Department is welcoming to students. Additionally, the fees are very competitive. I am self-funded. I didn’t apply for funding but do get occasional help from the Research Department with conference fees. I was also working model, albeit continually evolving, which will be used, not just in the production of the PhD thesis, but in all future texts that I write. My project is titled, ‘Addressing The Unspeakable: The Feral Child As Literary Device.’ It explores images of feral children, identifies the roles of language and civilization in determining the human psyche and asks questions about the relation between inner wildness and wordlessness. PUBLISHED WORK Working mostly by self-directed study, the PhD involves completing a novel, ‘Consider The Lilies’, which won the Impress Novel Prize for New Writers 2007 and was part time when I began the course, 18 published by Impress Books in June hours per week, but managed the work 2008. I am currently working on the with careful planning. Luckily I have complementary critical study and then few family commitments and a have an understanding partner. The PhD project will aim to make revisions before submitting the thesis in November 2009. has a way of taking over your life. One I officially retired from my job last of the skills you have to develop is December, but having had my novel putting it in its place and remembering published, much time is taken up with that you have a life outside of study. marketing, attending events and writing THREADS OF IDEAS The PhD has taught me personal skills; self-reliance, confidence the next novel, so time management remains crucial. and presentation skills. It has also I believe my PhD has enabled me to offered a delightful opportunity for inpublish the kind of novel I wanted to depth study, to clarify the threads of write and I hope it will lead to a career ideas and trace them to earlier ways of as a full-time author. I can’t say thinking. It is here that the word ‘philosophy’ comes into its own. Perhaps studying for PhD is an easy option, it is hard work and takes up all your the major skill I have developed is the concentration, but it is one of the most identification and weaving together of enjoyable and invigorating experiences the strands of my own practice in I have ever had. writing. This materialises as a working

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Prospects Postgrad Autumn 2008 Contents: What’s Inside For Love and Money Cash for Qualifications A Tale of Two Students Meet the Postgrad People All Aboard The Postgraduate Environment Maths Market The Postgrad Programme Teacher Training Arts and Humanities Science and Engineering Business and Management Social Sciences

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