Two years into a seven-year degree, I walked away. Now I no longer feel the need to deny my working-class background or change my accent to fit in
In 2018, I decided to walk away from a part-time PhD in creative writing. I was thousands of pounds down, with nothing to show for it but depression. On that day, as I drove home over the Yorkshire Wolds and into the valley in which I was born, I opened the car windows and laughed and cried into the scent of oilseed rape. I felt as if I had removed a horrible, itchy mask and was throwing it to the wind.
I was a published writer, but without the academic backing of a doctorate, I felt that I wouldn’t be taken seriously in the arts world. I was the first person in my rural, working-class family to go to university. All my degrees had been completed part-time: a BSc on day release while I was working as a lab technician, a BA and an MA through the Open University and distance learning with Manchester Metropolitan University.
