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Deir El Bahri, The Valley of the Kings, Abydos – was really magical. I was completely hooked from that point – it
changed my life.
To be honest I don’t remember facing too many challenges during my first two degrees(!). I was a good student,
and still very young and relatively care-free I think. My PhD, at Swansea University, was completely different and
I found that very, very hard. By the time I started I was in my mid-twenties, I had been working for the EES for
almost four years, and my friends were all making a success of themselves in their jobs just when I was going
back to become a student. I spent most of my time studying at home with my family where I lived in order to
save money. All of this made me feel a bit like a failure. And studying for years without much supervision, without
anyone to tell you whether or not you’re doing well is very hard. I constantly felt that I was wasting time and not
getting enough done – this is quite common for PhD students I think! – but it’s really soul-destroying and it made
me very unhappy. I went back to the EES to work before I had finished and that eventually meant that the last
parts of my thesis took 3.5 more years to finish but I was much happier working and earning money.
I think much too much emphasis is placed on the importance of PhDs. The process of writing a PhD thesis tea–
ches you a lot about research and your subject of course, but there are many other life and work skills which
it does not teach you – I feel I have learnt much more elsewhere such as at the EES – and more importantly
it is much too stressful – unnecessarily – for most people. There is simply too much pressure on the students
who spend years working and writing and worrying and at the end will either pass or fail – there is nothing in
between, you cannot take away half a PhD, and there is the very real fear of coming away with nothing. I was
terrified of this myself especially after I had a very difficult first viva examination after which I was given ‘major
corrections’ and asked to undertake one more year’s work. I felt absolutely terrible – ashamed and embarrassed
– I could never tell my mother what happened because she was ill at the time - and as though I had failed, and
I very nearly gave up after that and never went back to it. It was only thanks to the support of friends and col-
leagues (though not my supervisors ) that I did eventually re-submit my thesis and passed at the second attempt.
So I overcame this challenge with the help of my friends. I’d like to share one story about this in particular:
In 2011, I took one last month away from the EES to finish my PhD. I was at a very low point, and very close to
giving up. Professor Kenneth Kitchen phoned the EES office to speak to me and when he heard that I wasn't there
he sent a letter to my home. He said that he was really pleased to hear that I was carrying on with my thesis but
also that in the end, 'even if it doesn't work out, don't forget, YOU are still YOU, and that won't change whether
you are a Dr or not'. That is one of the nicest and most encouraging things anyone has ever said to me and one
day I will find that letter, put it in a frame and hang it on the wall of my house as an inspiration.
I hear of far too many students who have had similar experiences to mine and I’m afraid that it has come to be
accepted that this is just the way it works, but I can’t believe that there is not a better way. My preference would
be for fewer people to undertake doctoral research and for other criteria to be given more importance by em-
ployers. Fifty years ago it was not the standard, baseline requirement that it is now – everyone has a PhD which
stigmatizes anyone who doesn’t have one (although there are lots of people doing excellent work in our subject
without having a doctorate). I can think of some brilliant Egyptologists who have been denied jobs in our subject
because they had not quite finished their PhDs (this happened to me once too!) even though they would probably
hve been the best candidates for the job otherwise.
Considering your personal experience, would you suggest to a young to begin an Egyptological or archaeo-
logical career at all? And what recommendations would you give to the ones that already begun this kind of
career?
Yes, I would always encourage people to follow what they are passionate about. I love my work, and this gives
me the energy I need to do it. I would never be able to find that energy for a job I didn’t love and it would be
much less rewarding as a result. Of course, it’s also important to find what you’re good at it, but that can often
take a while to reveal itself, so for those people who have a passion for Egyptology I would say yes, go for it! As
for advice: study hard and read widely, but don't forget to give yourself the time to relax and think about other
things as well – the best thinking often gets done when you’re not really concentrating or you're doing something
else like sharing a beer with someone in the pub or going for a walk. For Egyptology I really believe that those
who are good communicators will give themselves the best chance of succeeding in the future. That means un-