{"id":55,"date":"2017-04-20T10:38:56","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T09:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/?p=55"},"modified":"2017-05-22T18:14:56","modified_gmt":"2017-05-22T17:14:56","slug":"a-fresher-at-fifty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/a-fresher-at-fifty\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fresher at Fifty"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Occasional Diary of a Mature Postgraduate Student at Newcastle University\u2019s Children\u2019s Literature Unit<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Jennifer Shelley<\/em><\/p>\n

Episode one: deciding to go back to study<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a recent family meal my nephew was bemoaning the difficulty of getting back in the way of studying after taking a year out to gain some work experience.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m afraid I just laughed \u2013 and told him to try it after 28 years.<\/p>\n

Because that\u2019s the gap between my first graduation (in English Literature from Edinburgh) and the decision to study for an MLitt in children\u2019s literature at Newcastle.<\/p>\n

So why did I decide to do it? Of the many reasons, the first impulse probably came from children\u2019s books themselves. A long-time collector and enthusiast, I had agreed to give a paper at the Fourth Bristol Conference on Twentieth Century Schoolgirls and Their Books this summer. My talk was on the Drina books by Mabel Esther Allan (written under the name Jean Estoril), a series about a young girl\u2019s fight to learn to dance and subsequent rise to become a ballerina. The books were written between the 1950s and 1990s and most were updated once or twice. What fascinated me was how the books unwittingly provided clues and evidence of the social and other changes that were going on in the second half of the last century \u2013 from the building of the Forth Road Bridge to whether it was okay for young girls to go out without a hat and gloves.<\/p>\n

I thoroughly enjoyed doing the research for the paper and realised that it made me feel very alive \u2013 as if my brain was working in a different way, and waking up an enthusiasm I hadn\u2019t felt for a while. It almost felt like a drug and I wanted more of it.<\/p>\n

A couple of people asked afterwards whether the paper was part of a formal research programme, which probably planted the seed, but there were other reasons too. Like a lot of people, I\u2019d often vaguely thought about studying for a second degree. I lived through my husband\u2019s PhD (as a mature student) a few years ago so knew it was no sinecure, and had thought it might be something I\u2019d like to do when I retired. But a couple of wake-up calls (in terms of friends\u2019 and colleagues\u2019 early deaths or illnesses) made me think that waiting wasn\u2019t the best plan. Plus, although I enjoy my work (as a freelance journalist and health writer) I\u2019ve been doing it for a long time. All in all, change was in order.<\/p>\n

Having made the decision, I then started looking around for the best course. Living in Highland Perthshire, I checked the Scottish universities first, but the only children\u2019s literature courses seemed to be hooked in to education departments, which wasn\u2019t really my interest.<\/p>\n

A friend suggested a distance learning MA in children\u2019s literature in the south of England, but the content of the course didn\u2019t particularly grab me \u2013 then another friend mentioned the MLitt at Newcastle; it sounded very good.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d already checked out the Newcastle University website<\/a>, partly because I\u2019d heard about its collaboration with Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children\u2019s Books<\/a>, and partly because I know and love the area having worked on one of the local newspapers 20 years ago (although I must say the city has transformed since then).<\/p>\n

The beauty of the MLitt, or so it seemed to me, was that I could structure it around areas that fitted my interests, rather than what some great authority thought should be part of a children\u2019s literature degree. The course involves writing three or four shorter research assignments totaling up to 24,000 words, then a dissertation of the same length, in a year full-time or over two years part-time. It was also, somewhat to my surprise, given that there is a lot of contact with a dedicated tutor, cheaper than even distance learning options elsewhere. This was a consideration as I\u2019m self-funding.<\/p>\n

A telephone call with one of the lecturers, Dr Lucy Pearson<\/a>, confirmed that this would be a good option for me, so I decided to apply\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Did you know Seven Stories is a member of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People? Earlier this spring CLUGG had the opportunity to explore the latest IBBY Honour List. Learn\u00a0about it on the Vital North blog<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Books
Books from the IBBY Honour Collection. Image: Newcastle University.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Occasional Diary of a Mature Postgraduate Student at Newcastle University\u2019s Children\u2019s Literature Unit Jennifer Shelley Episode one: deciding to go back to study At a recent family meal my nephew was bemoaning the difficulty of getting back in the way of studying after taking a year out to gain some work experience. I\u2019m afraid … Continue reading A Fresher at Fifty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6724,"featured_media":60,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24,20,66,21,23,4,22,67],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-childrens-literature-unit","tag-fresher-at-fifty","tag-ibby","tag-jean-estoril","tag-newcastle-university","tag-seven-stories","tag-twentieth-century-schoolgirls","tag-vital-north"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6724"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}