Story overview
I got turned down for funding the previous year. I completed a Masters at the university in the north of England where I was an undergraduate. At the end of that year I had got a place at another university to start a PhD but I didn't get any funding and so I couldn't go. And so I tried to work out why I hadn't got any funding. There was somebody at the university I was at previously who had something to do with the British Academy and so I went and talked to him and he sort of gave me a bit of background and told me a few of the things that might have affected the decision. And it seemed mainly like it was probably related to the research that I wanted to do – it wasn't new and original and exciting enough. And so I completely rewrote that, applied to a different university the following year and was successful that time.
