<h3 class="MsoNormal">Charlie Higson (EAS77) is an author, actor, producer, comedian and writer for TV, film and radio.&nbsp;Charlie graduated from UEA in 1980 with a BA in English Literature and in 2014 was given an honorary Doctorate of Letters by the university. </h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">While studying in Norwich, Charlie met Paul Whitehouse. Initially in a band, they went on to be part of a new generation of comedy actors and writers alongside Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer and Harry Enfield.</h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">Charlie recently returned to campus to talk about his book on the British monarchy &ndash; <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/willie-willie-harry-stee/charlie-higson/jim-moir/9780008741099">Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee</a> &ndash; as part of the Norwich History Festival. We are very grateful to Charlie for sitting down with us before the event and answering a few questions about writing and his time at UEA.</h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">Charlie also talked to student newspaper Concrete about his history and comedy writing. </h3>
&nbsp;
<h4 class="MsoNormal">You&rsquo;re back at UEA talking about your book on the British Monarchy, Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee. How does it feel to be back?</h4>
I had a great time here. I met a lot of great people and I had a laugh. I felt I had the freedom to find myself and have fun.
It&rsquo;s great to be back again. I&rsquo;m presenting in the Lecture Theatre. My memory is that attending lectures wasn&rsquo;t a particularly big thing for me&hellip;but I do think we used the room for film club &ndash; using the projector at the back. It was the only way to see these exciting new horror films from the States that we&rsquo;d heard about!
<h4 class="MsoNormal">You&rsquo;ve said that you&rsquo;re not a Republican or a Monarchist. Was that the case back in the 70s at UEA as well? Back in the era of activism and student politics?</h4>
Well, I didn't really give it any thought back then. There certainly was a lot of student politics about &ndash; it was raging.
I came back to the monarchy relatively recently. For me, it was just an amazing story. I tried not to bring any judgement to the institution of monarchy, and I was concentrating on each individual and their story.
<h4 class="MsoNormal">You&rsquo;re primarily known these days as an author, actor and comedy writer. But while you studied here at UEA, you were a musician. What was it like to be in a band at that time?</h4>
I formed a punk band in my first year at UEA with Paul Whitehouse. We called ourselves The Right Hand Lovers. New music venues were opening up, and it was a very exciting time. We helped to create a much more vibrant music scene in Norwich. We did play a few times at the university but mostly we played out and about in the city.
The band then became The Higsons, basically because everybody else in the band was kicked out of university. I enjoyed being in the band and entertaining a crowd, but technically I&rsquo;m not a good singer. I lost my voice after every third or fourth gig, but I could shout rhythmically&hellip;
<h4 class="MsoNormal">Did you take any of your musical experiences into your writing and acting work?</h4>
Music was great fun and meant you could get instant feedback on your material &ndash; the audience liked it or they didn&rsquo;t &ndash; and I found that really helpful. The first comedy writing for TV I did was for Harry Enfield &ndash; Stavros and then Loadsamoney. Although the feedback wasn&rsquo;t instant, we&rsquo;d write the sketches during the week, and he&rsquo;d be up on stage doing it in front of a live studio audience on the weekend. When we came to make The Fast Show we did a lot of the filming in front of a live audience &ndash; and again that feedback was great.
Nowadays, when I&rsquo;m writing books, I finish the manuscript after a year and then eventually it goes out and&hellip;who knows? The rise of social media means you do get some sort of instant response, but then you never know who you&rsquo;re dealing with there!

An interview with Charlie Higson, author, actor, producer, comedian and writer for TV, film and radio, and UEA graduate. Charlie talks about being in a band while at UEA and talking at the Norwich History Festival.

Charlie Higson returns to campus

<h3>Natalie Froome (LDC15) left UEA in 2019 with a BA in English Literature and an MA in Creative Writing (Scriptwriting). Alongside a job as a Hansard Reporter in the House of Lords, Natalie has started to build a career as a television writer, and has recently been <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/writers/blog/voices-2026-london" target="_blank" rel="noopener">selected as writer on the BBC's Voice 2026</a>, in their London hub. Natalie took the time to answer some questions on her time at UEA, and what it's been like building her writing career. </h3>
<h4>How did you discover&nbsp;UEA and why did you choose to study here?</h4>
I&rsquo;d heard about UEA&rsquo;s reputation for English Literature and creative writing, and when I attended the UEA open day everything just felt right. I remember walking across the square in the sunshine thinking &ldquo;Yep, I can see myself here&rdquo;. Everyone was friendly, the atmosphere was welcoming, and I&rsquo;ve always had a soft spot for brutalist architecture.
<h4>At what point during your undergraduate studies did you decide to carry on at&nbsp;UEA and do a Master&rsquo;s?</h4>
The Creative Writing MA had always been a bit of a &ldquo;someday&rdquo; aspiration and I loved the idea of spending a year solely focused on developing as a writer, but I wasn&rsquo;t sure whether to stay on or start my career. When I found out I was eligible for the fee scholarship after graduating with a first, I decided it was now or never, and I&rsquo;m so glad I stayed!
<h4>What is your favourite memory of studying at&nbsp;UEA? And of living in Norwich?</h4>
There are so many, it&rsquo;s hard to choose one! I fondly remember UEA Archery Club competitions and socials, gigs at the LCR and Saturday mornings in the library followed by a campus kitchen fry-up. I loved living in the Golden Triangle during my MA and wrote most of my dissertation in the Caff&eacute; Nero on Unthank Road.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/185167/576x787/d1947f1d05/natalie-froome-then.png" border="0" alt="Natalie Froome standing in front of UEA Broad in Graduation gown and cap" width="300" height="410"> Natalie on Graduation Day
<h4>What were your career ambitions while studying, and how have these changed as you have embarked on your career?</h4>
I knew I wanted to write TV from a young age, but it seemed like a bit of a pipe dream. At UEA I got the chance to explore lots of different interests and hear from other grads at Working with Words, which was such a valuable event. I used the summer holidays to get various bits of work experience on daytime TV, at an advertising agency and in a newspaper office, but the ambition of writing TV drama never really left. Today I balance my job in the House of Lords as a Hansard Reporter with building my career as a television writer.
<h4>How did you come to be part of the BBC&rsquo;s Voice 2026 London Hub? What does the recognition mean to you?</h4>
I&rsquo;d been entering the BBC Open Call every year since 2020, using it as a deadline to keep writing and improving, hoping one day to get a spot on one of the BBC&rsquo;s development groups but knowing that the sheer number of writers entering made it unlikely. My 2024 script made the top 9% of entries applications, so I knew I was heading in the right direction. After reaching the interview stage of the 2025 Open Call, I was selected for London Voices 2026. It&rsquo;s been such a brilliant creative experience, and being part of the programme has given me more confidence in my work and in trusting my own voice&mdash;even if the imposter syndrome hasn&rsquo;t disappeared completely!
<h4>You&rsquo;ve managed to build up an impressive body of screenwriting work &ndash; what&rsquo;s been a highlight for you?</h4>
Aside from BBC Voices, my first development deal was a huge moment. I got an email from my agent that almost made me fall out of my chair; a production company had read a one-page pitch I&rsquo;d written and instantly said they wanted it. Getting to be in a room with producers fleshing out a world and characters I&rsquo;d created, testing ideas and throwing plot about, confirmed that television writing was exactly what I wanted to do
<h4>&nbsp;And what&rsquo;s next? What are you working on and what do you hope to achieve?</h4>
I&rsquo;m hoping to get some more ideas into development, because I love the collaborative creative process. The spy thriller series I developed on BBC Voices has just gone out to production companies for consideration, so fingers crossed! Long-term, I&rsquo;d like to be writing TV full-time, contributing to series and eventually running my own shows.
<a class="ui-button" href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/course/undergraduate/ba-english-literature">Study English Literature at UEA</a>

An interview with UEA graduate Natalie Froome, who left UEA in 2019 with a BA in English Literature and an MA in Creative Writing (Scriptwriting). Natalie talks about deciding to stay at UEA for a Master's and being recognised in the BBC’s Voice 2026.

Becoming a writer after UEA

<h3 class="MsoNormal">We were delighted to hear from Maria Mamalinga (CHE89) recently, who has been awarded one of the most prestigious honours in Greek literature for her first novella Merk&aacute;do (Hestia, 2024).</h3>
Maria received the 2025 State Prize for Short Stories and Novellas for her first novella Merk&aacute;do,&nbsp;which explores coming of age, personal&nbsp;loss, identity, community, memory and survival. The State Prize for Short Stories and Novellas by the Greek Ministry of Culture is widely regarded as the leading award in Greece. It&nbsp;recognises&nbsp;outstanding books by authors writing in Greek language. Maria Mamalinga, who grew up in Rhodes, but lives and works in Athens, at the Athens School of Fine Art, is a fiction writer and film critic. She is also the author of multiple books for young children.&nbsp; Reflecting on her year at UEA, Maria Mamalinga said: &ldquo;At UEA I was studying chemistry, although I was longing to study literature and cinema. UEA gave me the opportunity to meet W. G. Sebald in person, but I wasn't able to take it. He was Professor of European Literature at the time. Unfortunately, I was not acquainted with his prose back then. Thinking back, I can describe that incident in my life with Italo Calvino&rsquo;s prose: The Castle of Crossed Destinies.&rdquo; Her award-winning novel reflects deeply on the loss of the Sephardic community of Rhodes during World War II, which was the last transport of Jews from Greece to Auschwitz and one of the longest journeys in Holocaust history. It examines the grief over war destruction (1943-1945) and&nbsp;explores the themes of loss and survival. &ldquo;Winning the State Prize for Short Stories and Novellas by the Greek Ministry of Culture has been a real joy, as it feels like a win for perseverance and patience, for the courage and the will to change.&rdquo; said Maria Mamalinga, speaking about the win. She also shared advice for aspiring writers, saying:&nbsp;&ldquo;don&rsquo;t stop searching for and writing your truth.&rdquo; Quoting Beckett, she added: &ldquo;Try again. Fail again. Fail better.&rdquo;
&nbsp;

A report from Maria Mamalinga - a UEA Chemistry MSc graduate who has gone on to be fiction writer and film critic. Maria talks about her love of writing and her award-winning novella Merkádo

UEA Chemistry graduate on being awarded top European literary prize

<h2>Amanda Hodes (LDC19) gained a MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from&nbsp;UEA in 2020. She has gone on to write her debut poetry collection <a href="https://blacklawrencepress.com/books/into-the-into-of-earth-itself/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Into the Into of Earth Itself</a>, which won the <a href="https://www.fresnostatenews.com/2025/02/06/ohio-author-wins-2024-philip-levine-prize-for-poetry/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2024 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry</a>. The collection explores two towns in Pennsylvania and is due to be released in September 2026. Amanda kindly answered some questions about her collection and how her time at UEA influenced her writing.</h2>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">How did you come to study Creative Writing at&nbsp;UEA?</h3>
I was drawn by UEA's renowned reputation for creative writing, as well as by the picturesque landscape of Norwich itself. As a writer from the United States, I found&nbsp;it appealing to work with peers from all over the world since my UEA Masters cohort consisted of poets from a range of global places. The UEA International Excellence Scholarship was especially helpful in making attendance possible for me too.&nbsp;
<h3 class="MsoNormal">How did your&nbsp;UEA degree help your writing and your career?</h3>
The UEA Masters provided dedicated writing time and a cohort of devoted peers who gave a profound amount of attention and generosity to my&nbsp;work. While I didn't realize it at the time, I also discovered that I needed to be away from the landscape of my home (Pennsylvania, USA) to actually understand what that locale meant to my identity as a writer. There's a particularly rich tradition of place-oriented poets in England, and their work had a tremendous influence on me during my studies.
<img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/185167/2388x2940/70fce1746f/amanda-hodes.png" border="0" alt="Picture of Amanda Hodes standing in front of brick wall in English countryside" width="400">
Amanda during her time in the UK 
<h3 class="MsoNormal">What are your favourite memories for studying at&nbsp;UEA?</h3>
I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Sainsbury Center's&nbsp;Young Associates Program. I maintain a practice as a sound artist and am extremely inspired by visual art to this&nbsp;day. I remember many afternoons writing and studying in the Sainsbury Center, immersed in art and poetry, followed by ample walks on the nearby trails.
<h3 class="MsoNormal">Your new collection of poetry, Into the Into of Earth itself, looks at two towns in Pennsylvania. How did you come to be interested in this topic?</h3>
I arrived at UEA with an entirely different project in mind (a project that has since morphed into my second manuscript). However, I took Professor Andrea Holland's Poetics of Place seminar and was tasked with examining my own relationship to place. Far from home, I saw my original landscape in stark relief as I questioned what made it distinct - and what strange hold it still held over me. Growing up in a small polluted zinc-smelting town, I had to find the beauty in the industrial, the wounded, and what scholar&nbsp;Joyelle McSweeney calls the 'necropastoral.' In Holland's seminar, I began writing poems about Centralia, a nearby Pennsylvania town that was condemned due to an underground mine fire that will burn for centuries. Suddenly, the mountains started speaking, the thermophile bacteria sang, and the pigeons had stories to tell. After I graduated, I continued my MFA studies at Virginia Tech, where this seed of a book became&nbsp;Into the Into of Earth Itself.
<h3 class="MsoNormal">How did it feel to win the 2024 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry for the collection, and what did the journey to publication look like for you?</h3>
The collection had taken nearly 4 years to write and fine tune, so when I won the Philip Levine Prize, I was deeply moved that my work had resonated with someone else--namely the judge Diana Khoi Nguyen, a poet whose work had shaped my own practice. Moreover, earning a prize named after Philip Levine was truly meaningful; Levine's working class, industrial background and ethos continues to guide me as a first-generation college student (and, now, professor). I had submitted to many poetry prizes for a year and half before the book was picked up, and I'm glad I had the perseverance to keep sending it out.
<h3 class="MsoNormal">What advice would you have for fellow writers of poetry currently studying creative writing at&nbsp;UEA?</h3>
Write as much as you can while you have the time. Likewise, remember to stay in touch with your cohort members. You can learn just as much from them as you can from your professors - and they'll remain part of your valuable network once you leave.
<a class="ui-button" href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/course/postgraduate/ma-creative-writing-poetry">Study MA Creative Writing Poetry at UEA</a>
&nbsp;

An interview with Amanda Hodes (LDC19) - UEA Creative Writing graduate and poet. Amanda talks to us about how studying Creative Writing at UEA inspired her to write her award-winning collection of poetry centred on two towns in Pennsylvania.

How UEA shaped the writing of poet Amanda Hodes

<h3 class="MsoNormal">Roger Aspland, a long serving member of the academic staff at UEA within the School of Education and Professional Development, died peacefully on 6 May 2026 aged 86 at the home he shared in Norfolk with his wife Penny. In the weeks preceding this event he was able to enjoy several conversations with former colleagues and friends that inevitably focused on the experiences they had shared at UEA.</h3>
Roger joined UEA in 1981 following the merger with Keswick Hall College of Education and the formation of a new School of Education. Up to this point Roger had established himself as a physical education specialist in the field of initial teacher training, based on his considerable accomplishments as an all-round sportsman. Professor Anne Cockburn, a post-merger &lsquo;new blood&rsquo; appointment, recalled that:
I&nbsp;first met Roger over 40 years ago and throughout found him to be an exceptional colleague and friend.&nbsp; He was a keen sailor, enthusiastic rock climber and played rugby for his county.&nbsp; He also took part in a very competitive and highly entertaining hockey match involving various, very amateurish members of the School of Education.
Following the merger Roger retrained to equip himself to run courses for serving teachers in the field of management education. In doing so he was opened to new horizons of possibility with respect to his own future work. He took to &lsquo;management&rsquo;, as a field for his own higher education work with colleagues, like &lsquo;a duck takes to water&rsquo;; displaying personal dispositions and qualities of judgement in the way he quietly and self-effacingly, yet firmly, handled the problems and conflicts which arise for, and between, practitioners in this context. It resulted in a succession of Deans/Heads of the School of Education at UEA acknowledging the support Roger gave them informally or more formally as their deputy in a senior management role. &nbsp;In 1993-96 he served as my Deputy at a time when the School of Education faced a shifting policy context in the field of initial teaching education, one that gave stronger control over the curriculum and supply of teachers to central government. The university gave me credit for handling the problems decisively in a way that minimised conflict. It took me years to realise that much of this credit was due to the back-up I received from Roger as my deputy; the quality of which was also reflected in his subsequent work as Dean, prior to his retirement. It is aptly captured by another former colleague and head of school, Professor Nigel Norris. &nbsp;
He was a fine Dean of the School and a great colleague: the safest of safe pairs of hands, phlegmatic, self-effacing and good at getting the best out of people. He was frequently there in the background making things work and getting things done; a man for all seasons.&nbsp; 
In this latter respect Roger embraced yet another horizon of possibility in the form of applied research in education. Nigel Norris writes:
I had the good fortune to work closely with Roger in the 1990s. A brilliant fieldworker, he made an important contribution to our independent evaluation of comprehensive curriculum reform in Finland.
Roger&rsquo;s personal qualities as a &lsquo;man for all seasons&rsquo;, in the changing flow of activity within a busy department of higher education, was also captured in testimony provided by other former colleagues. &nbsp;They experienced a man who combined empathy towards colleagues with high expectations regarding both his and their higher education practice.
Looking back on Roger&rsquo;s practice at UEA, Barbara Zamorski &ndash; a long serving teacher and researcher at UEA who was also a member of the team that evaluated the Finish National Curriculum &ndash; recalled:
In my experience of working with Roger, which incidentally I always enjoyed, it seemed to me that he rarely subscribed to the concept of &lsquo;good enough&rsquo;. Rather, he embraced an &lsquo;above and beyond&rsquo; approach. This was always obvious in the writing and lecturing he engaged in, and his commitment, thoroughness and carefully ordered attitude to his work was much appreciated by students and colleagues alike.&nbsp;&nbsp; 
I could offer a list of examples that embodied this attitude. But a somewhat more unusual but telling example of such an attitude occurred in Finland, when Roger was working with a team of five of us on an evaluation of the new Finnish educational curriculum. As a team, we spent our time, separately, in different regions of Finland. The Finnish were welcoming and most helpful, and at one point, when Roger found himself in the upper and colder reaches of the country, he was invited to join a couple of Finnish colleagues for a regular social event. Following his usual approach to full commitment, he agreed to meet with them in the evening on a more informal basis than usual, always useful in an evaluation. He subsequently found himself sitting in a sauna, under a cold and starlit sky, chatting about a range of ideas and philosophies. The event finished by all the participants running out of the sauna and rolling around in the snow! Now that's what I call &lsquo;above and beyond&rsquo;.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
This ability to incorporate a personal dimension into professional practice was also evident, if less narratively expressed, in the following tributes to Roger&rsquo;s work at UEA:
Roger was Deputy Dean of School during the short time that I was Dean, and it was a great reassurance to me to have him by my side &ndash; he was a rock! Roger was respected by all sections of the <a name="_Int_AiH8TMIx"></a>School -- those primarily engaged in teacher training and those primarily in research roles -- and this helped to hold the <a name="_Int_Iwvijxif"></a>School together at a time when it risked splitting apart. I was delighted when I moved on to a role as PVC that he agreed to take on the Deanship (the first non-professor to take on the role) and of course he carried the position with authority, humanity and sound common sense. Thank you, Roger. (Professor David Bridges)
Roger had a very committed and practical approach to whatever he was doing, be it fitting a new kitchen or managing his team of highly creative, but I suspect, rather challenging colleagues when he was Head of School.&nbsp; He was, he told me recently, rather reluctant to take on the Deanship but &ndash; as was ever his way &ndash; he did it calmly and effectively; steering us through the trials and tribulations of research assessment exercises and what seemed like endless Ofsted inspections.&nbsp; From a personal perspective, I can say that he was extremely supportive of new colleagues (for example inviting me to join a highly experienced team launching a BPhil degree) and maintaining my morale when I was having a particularly challenging time when I &ndash; like he several years before me &ndash; was Head of EDU.
Roger was a very dependable person who you could always rely on.&nbsp; He was extremely kind and retained his sense of humour right to the end. &nbsp;(Professor Anne Coburn)
For several years Roger was Dean of the School of Education at a time there were several aspects of my job that I was not very good at. At all times he was patient, constructive and helpful and he helped guide me towards a better understanding of what I might do to get better at things. 
In spite of his natural modesty, I gradually became aware of the respect that he was held in as Head of School. He had a calm, quiet and thoughtful approach to the challenges facing the school, and a common-sense way of handling difficult issues. Although unfailingly polite, he could be firm and decisive when necessary and always seemed to make sensible and fair decisions. 
As well as being an exemplary colleague, as the years passed, I got to know him as a friend. In addition to the decency and integrity of his professional persona, he was kind, good fun and good company. In all the years I worked with him, I never heard anyone say a bad word about him. I will miss him, but I feel very lucky to have known him and to have worked with him. (Professor Terry Haydn)
John Elliott, May 2026. Roger's funeral will be held from 1pm at Colney Woodland Burial Park on Monday 1 June. Colourful casual clothes are encouraged and no flowers please. Afterwards 2.30 Sugar Beat pub, Swainsthorpe.

A tribute to former Head of School of Education Roger Aspland (EDU, ARE) featuring memories from his former colleagues and edited by John Elliot.

Roger Aspland – A tribute for ‘A Man for All Seasons’

<h3>Sarah Jones gained a BA in English Literature with Creative Writing and a MA in Writing the Modern World from&nbsp;UEA, leaving in 2017. She has since gone on to forge a career in advertising and was kind enough to sit down with us and answer some questions.</h3>
<h4> What have you been up to since you graduated?&nbsp;</h4>
I started on an ad agency graduate scheme once I left&nbsp;UEA in 2017, with a company called Karmarama (which is now part of Accenture Interactive). I stayed there three and a half years, I then moved to M&amp;C Saatchi World Services and worked there for another three and a half years. I&rsquo;d started in Account Management (sometimes called &lsquo;Client Management&rsquo;), but while I was at M&amp;C Saatchi I switched departments into research and insights. Now I'm at Stonehaven, a political consultancy firm, where I&rsquo;m a Senior Insights Consultant. Insights is applied research &ndash; you don&rsquo;t just tell companies what people think, you tell them what they can do with that information.&nbsp; When I set out into advertising I had no idea they had research departments. I actually first got into insights at Karmarama because the company started getting interested in semiotics and I thought &lsquo;I know what that is, from my degree&rsquo;, so I ended up doing lots of work alongside the semioticians they hired, which worked out really well when I applied to M&amp;C Saatchi.
<h4>&nbsp; What was your ambition for your career when you started at UEA? Did you have a specific career path in mind?</h4>
I wanted to do publishing because I think that's what everyone wants to do when they start out in literature! And that wasn't a bad idea. While I was at UEA I set up a publishing company called Seam Editions with some other students, and doing that was fantastic &ndash; but &nbsp;it made me realise that I didn't necessarily want to do it for a job. I actually got an internship at a literary agency before I left, but it just wasn&rsquo;t quite what I wanted to do &ndash; so I turned to advertising as a related communications job. And then things started to come across my desk and I thought &lsquo;Oh I&rsquo;m interested in that&rsquo;. For example I started working with a telecommunications client, and among it all, that got into an interesting thing about what people think the internet looks like &ndash; visually in an ad &ndash; and what role it plays and therefore how much people value it, and how much people think it should cost.&nbsp; I realised I could build on that and got more and more interested in the research side of advertising, which is all about how people think about objects and services and aspects of their lives. And I realized oh, that is my thing! At UEA I was already interested in how people think about things &ndash; I wrote my undergraduate dissertation on swimming pools! &ndash; and now, in politics, I&rsquo;m interested in how people think about ideas, policies. Immigration is a big one at the moment. I&rsquo;m writing a slide deck on what people are talking about when they talk about immigration. But looking back I realize that this is the thread I&rsquo;ve been secretly following from my undergraduate days through different corporate careers: it&rsquo;s to do with how people think and see things. I wasn&rsquo;t expecting to find that interest carried through into the world of work, but I can see it has been.
<h4>Tell me about your experiences studying at UEA.</h4>
I thought I was coming to UEA as an undergraduate to eventually pitch myself for the masters in Creative Writing, but ended up going in a completely different direction, and getting interested in literary criticism and theory, and doing a Master&rsquo;s in that. At undergraduate level the contemporary fiction and Ulysses modules really stuck with me. The Ulysses module was hard, but it&rsquo;s something I still think about. And my undergraduate dissertation was on swimming pools in contemporary fiction: someone actually asked me to read it the other day because it was still on my LinkedIn profile!&nbsp; And then on the MA I got interested in creative criticism and with a couple of other students set up a company to publish creative-critical work, called Seam Editions. We applied for money from the Enterprise Centre, and they backed us! It was great &ndash; really good fun. We ran it for three years, and it was fantastic in itself, but also for jobs. I still talk about it in job interviews &ndash; people get very interested in the fact that I started something off my own bat at university. As I say, I didn&rsquo;t end up going into publishing, but it got me into other jobs, and made me stand out in the graduate job search, including in my interview for the M&amp;C Saatchi job.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h4>In your career what key tasks and skills are involved on a day-to-day basis, and what are the most rewarding aspects?</h4>
So, what I do as a researcher is lots of surveys, focus groups and interviews, and also desk research. My job is to pull together stories and strategies out of lots and lots of information. I also do a lot of presentations, and I&rsquo;m known to be quite good at it now, even though everyone also knows I&rsquo;m (still) always anxious about it. <img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/185167/728x748/35d00f029f/sarah_jones_website_2024.png" border="0" alt="Headshot of Sarah Jones" width="400" height="411">
<h4>How has your degree influenced your career?</h4>
I can form data into simple, entertaining, compelling narrative pieces, and that is something I definitely learned at uni. I 100% needed the English degree to get to that. And from the literary theory work I understand perspective, and that how I see stuff isn&rsquo;t necessarily how other people see stuff. Our department&rsquo;s informal mantra has become &lsquo;perception is reality&rsquo; and I think &lsquo;oh I&rsquo;m used to this way of thinking because of what I did at university&rsquo;. I&rsquo;ve several times put literature quotes into business writing to illustrate point of view, and that how you receive things is how it exists for you, or a character, in that moment.&nbsp;
<h4>What personal or professional achievement are you most proud of?</h4>
I want to say getting my Masters, 100%! But professionally it was getting into the insights department, because it&rsquo;s a pretty tough jump between those departments. I had to get lots of formal training in primary research methods, but what backed it up was that I could do semiotics, which is something we learned in the first year of the BA on the Reading Texts [now Reading Now] module. Semiotics teaches you how meanings are made through codes &ndash; and that&rsquo;s super important for advertising and for how you put adverts together and how people experience them. Brands will pay a lot of money to get those things right. I built my career, and managed to switch professions too, because I understood those things.&nbsp;
<h4>What were your experiences of Norwich as a city?</h4>
I still come back all the time. I love it. I still love visiting. When I was applying I was torn between [another excellent university] and UEA and what swung it was Norwich. Both courses were strong, both institutions are brilliant, so I just thought &lsquo;where would I rather live?&rsquo; and obviously it was Norwich! When I come back I go to Strangers, Brick Pizza, or the Belgian Monk &ndash; I took my partner there on my last visit and she said &lsquo;this is amazing! Why aren&rsquo;t we here all time?&rsquo;
<h4>Would you recommend studying at UEA? Why?</h4>
I would, and I still do! I regularly recommend it. Norwich is such a fantastic place to live, and the university is so special. It&rsquo;s so different to other universities. Obviously that&rsquo;s hard to appreciate when you&rsquo;re picking at 18, because you&rsquo;ve never been to a university, so you have no point of comparison. So it&rsquo;s only in hindsight I truly appreciate how special it is. I know UEA has a thing about doing things differently but I think it&rsquo;s actually true, it genuinely is. I think its approach to English Literature is really special &ndash; I don&rsquo;t think many institutions do it in that sort of way, especially approaches like creative-critical writing.&nbsp;
<h4>Would you have any advice to give to current students wanting to follow a similar career path to you?</h4>
My genuine advice is not to panic if it's not immediately obvious what you're doing or where you&rsquo;re going, or why, as long as you're following an interesting thread through. As I say, I&rsquo;ve moved between departments and industries, and it led me to some really interesting places that weren&rsquo;t initially apparent to me. I didn't really know, for example, that political consulting existed &ndash; or at least, if I had heard of it, at 18, or 21, or 23, I&rsquo;d have thought &lsquo;that's not for me&rsquo;. But actually, from just following my nose a bit I&rsquo;ve found myself in a place that&rsquo;s interesting and fulfilling too. And I never thought I would moderate focus groups - that would have been really weird to 18-year-old me! But now I really enjoy it as part of my job. So I think if you just keep following the thing that you like you will find more of the thing you like, probably in places that you don't expect. Maybe don&rsquo;t immediately turn down roles you don't think fit with you. At 18 I saw myself as a very artsy, very theoretical, very liberal, and I still think of myself like that, but I wouldn&rsquo;t have previously thought these jobs are compatible with that. I thought I'd have to be in a publishing house, or trying to do a PhD or like something like that. But you find these interesting things in other places as well.&nbsp;
<h4>What is next for you?</h4>
I think I&rsquo;m staying here [at Stonehaven] for a while. I want to get really good at this!
<h4>Is there anything else you would like to tell us about yourself or your UEA experience?</h4>
I loved it. I genuinely did. I just think about it as a really good time, studying something I was really interested in.&nbsp; I&rsquo;d also just like to give a shoutout to whoever allocated first year accommodation in 2012. I don&rsquo;t know if it was sheer luck or design but I ended up with a great group and we lived together through the whole of undergrad. 10 years on we&rsquo;re still friends and actually going on holiday next month &ndash; six of us from the original flat, and now four of our partners (some who met at UEA!), a three year old, a baby and a dog.&nbsp; <a class="ui-button" href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/course/undergraduate/ba-english-literature-with-creative-writing">Study English Literature with Creative Writing at UEA</a>

Sarah Jones gained a BA in English Literature and a MA in Writing the Modern World from UEA, leaving in 2017. She has since gone on to forge a career in advertising and was kind enough to sit down with us and answer some questions.

Using UEA English degrees in the advertising business

<h3>In September a small group of the ENV75 cohort gathered in Norwich for a reunion to mark 50 years of starting at UEA. This is their report of their reunion, as written by Ian Woods (ENV75).</h3>
 This group had met in 1988 to mark 10 years since graduation and a follow up was rather overdue. &nbsp;Sadly we were never going to have the full group as we had already lost Fiona Goodhead (nee Hemming) in 2007 and so rather than waiting until 2028 to mark 50 years of graduation a starting celebration was in order.&nbsp; How do you mark such a date&hellip; when so many things have changed, careers diverged and hair lost or gone grey? &nbsp;A light touch of organisation was in order so a pub &ndash; The Golden Star - and beer as an ice-breaker before heading to the Namaste for a curry. &nbsp;After the initial surprises of changed appearances etc conversation ﬂowed as it did for the weekend thereon. &nbsp;
<img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/185167/555x416/d0aef3340b/golden-star.png" border="0" alt="UEA Graduates sitting around restaurant table" width="500" height="375"> Namaste for a reunion meal Saturday saw the group split into two &lsquo;teams&rsquo; and a mildly competitive treasure hunt through the streets of Norwich in search of the &ldquo;Golden Canary&rdquo; whilst taking in corners of the City we knew from off-campus trips including half remembered shops etc like Just Johns for coffee and best cheesecake in town, Johns the Butchers for cheap mince (how did we escape BSE?!), and Captain America&rsquo;s for cocktails whilst waiting for a table, burgers and hot chocolate fudge sundaes. The weather was mostly kind and only drove us indoors at the Adam &amp; Eve with a downpour and therefore a second round at the bar!&nbsp; An evening BBQ with a composite photo reel of images from the 1970&rsquo;s brought conversations around themes of &lsquo;who&rsquo;s that&rsquo;, &lsquo;where&rsquo;s that&rsquo; and &lsquo;which field trip was that&rsquo;! Lecturers, subjects, places, events bounced around and were added to by the addition of folk on Zoom from Guernsey and Northern Ireland to nearly bring the group to its full strength. <img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/185167/636x511/44c2015c22/fieldtrip1.png" border="0" alt="A field Trip" width="500" height="402">&nbsp; An ENV Field Trip in the 1970s Sunday, it was time to go into full nostalgia mode and visit the campus. &nbsp;So after a coffee in the Sainsbury Centre (which opened in our final year in 1978) it was time to wander the grounds and walkways. Fifer&rsquo;s Lane and the Village (as we knew it including the much lamented Barn) are long since gone so it was&nbsp;Ziggurats, Teaching Wall, Library and Union House to take our minds back 50 years.&nbsp; The gravel pit is now The Broad, Suffolk Terrace Squash Court is accommodation, Waveney Terrace replaced, the small shared TV in Union House gone &ndash; as is the bookshop! &nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/185167/742x495/744959e403/tugofwar.png" border="0" alt="Students playing Tug of War" width="500" height="334"> UEA Students playing Tug of War in the 1970s The entrance to Environmental Sciences moved, the stream and &lsquo;pond&rsquo; in the square no more &hellip; but the concrete, as do our friendships, endure.&nbsp; Our reunion weekend ironically fell on arrivals day for the new intake of students (freshers) so we pondered how many of those arriving in 2025 will gather in 2075 to reflect on their 50 years? <img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/185167/557x472/9e5c9c1456/graduation.png" border="0" alt="4 UEA Graduates in graduation gowns" width="500" height="424"> Attendees&nbsp; Ian Woods&nbsp; Mark Thompson &nbsp; Robin James&nbsp; Cathy Jones (nee Jordan) Wendy Fancourt&nbsp; Lesley Healey &nbsp; Andrew (Knowles) Harrison&nbsp; By Zoom &nbsp; John Robinson &nbsp; Ann Blease (nee Jennings) Absent (with permission!) Chris Ashford (nee Harris) Judith Dobson (nee Dodd) Sadly Missed &nbsp; Fiona Goodhead (nee Hemming)&nbsp;

In September 2025 a small group of the ENV75 cohort gathered in Norwich for a reunion to mark 50 years of starting at UEA. This is their report of their reunion.

ENV75 at 50: An alumni return to campus

UEA is celebrating the impactful work of Seema McArdle: a writer, educator and ant-racism ambassador for the <a href="https://www.theredcard.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Show Racism the Red Card</a> charity, who has dedicated her time to encouraging inclusion across literature and education.&nbsp;
Find out more about Seema &ndash; from her involvement with the Show Racism the Red Card charity (including her involvement in UEA&rsquo;s Wear Red Day on Friday 17 October) to her contributions to The John Blanke Project, and pathway to publication.
<h2> Seema McArdle&nbsp;</h2>
Seema describes herself as a &lsquo;PunGeordie&rsquo; writer, born in Newcastle into a Punjabi family. She has played a key role in deepening understanding of British South Asian and Black identities, not only through her lived experiences &ndash; including 17 years as a primary teacher &ndash; but also through her growing profile as a writer and her proactive ambassador work.&nbsp;
Currently working within the Faculty of Humanities supporting placement students, Seema is also a member of UEA's Race Equality Steering Group, which aims to embed and promote race equality, to bring about institutional change for the benefit of our UEA community.&nbsp;
She is also a member of the Racial Justice Champions Group, organised by the Diocese of Norwich, working towards countering racism within schools across Norfolk. &nbsp;&nbsp;
Find out more about Seema&rsquo;s involvement with the Show Racism the Red Card charity (including her involvement in UEA&rsquo;s Wear Red Day on Friday 17 October), her contributions to The John Blanke Project, and her pathway to publication.
<h2> Show Racism the Red Card and Wear Red Day&nbsp;</h2>
As an ambassador for Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC), the UK&rsquo;s biggest anti-racism educational charity, Seema is currently involved in campaigning (alongside the National Education Union and other organisations) for anti-racism education to be embedded into the National Curriculum. &nbsp;
This work has involved visiting the House of Lords for cross-party discussions, and meetings with Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Norwich South MP Clive Lewis, alongside Doreen Lawrence, Migrant Voice UK, sportspeople and more.
<img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/185167/720x350/b8e6953a71/seema-mcardle-2.png" border="0" alt="Seema wearing red for Wear Red Day 2024; Ugbana Oyet, Serjeant at Arms of the House of Commons, and Seema at last year's Black History Month event at the Speaker&rsquo;s House; Seema with Norwich South MP Clive Lewis" width="720" height="350"> Image caption:&nbsp;Seema wearing red for Wear Red Day 2024; Ugbana Oyet, Serjeant at Arms of the House of Commons, and Seema at last year's Black History Month event at the Speaker&rsquo;s House; Seema with Norwich South MP Clive Lewis 
At&nbsp;UEA, she has also played a key role in launching both <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/university-of-east-anglia_south-asian-heritage-month-2024-activity-7230626771698667520-2Tnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">South Asian Heritage Month</a> and <a href="https://my.uea.ac.uk/news/article/celebrate-this-years-black-history-month-by-showing-racism-the-red-card" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wear Red Day in 2024</a>, helping foster a more inclusive and representative environment across the University.&nbsp;
With Wear Red Day celebrating its eleventh anniversary on Friday 17 October this year during Black History Month, Seema explains why this day is important to acknowledge and how you can show support:&nbsp;
&ldquo;Victims of racism often feel isolated, unseen and unheard. Wear Red Day is a voluntary way for staff and students to raise awareness and show support for anti-racism by wearing something red.&rdquo;
<h2> The John&nbsp;Blanke Project and why representation matters&nbsp;</h2>
This year, Seema contributed to the publication &lsquo;Who is John Blanke?&rsquo; (pages 168-169), a new book edited by TV historian Michael Ohajuru, which explores the life and significance of <a href="https://www.johnblanke.com/about.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Blanke</a> &ndash; the first known Black person to be visually depicted in British art, featured on the Westminster scroll of 1511. &nbsp;
The book is now available in libraries at UEA, Norwich University of the Arts and The Forum, and at Norwich Book Festival&rsquo;s bookshop.
<img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/185167/720x350/f3713c280c/seema-mcardle-3.png" border="0" alt="Seema and Michael Ohajuru at the &rsquo;Who is John Blanke?&rsquo; book launch" width="720" height="350"> Image caption: Seema and Michael Ohajuru at the &rsquo;Who is John Blanke?&rsquo; book launch&nbsp;
John Blanke was a Black trumpeter to the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII, captured in two images in Tudor artwork, as well as official records, which show him receiving wages and petitioning for a wage increase, and receiving prestigious gifts from King Henry VIII.&nbsp;
Speaking about <a href="https://www.johnblanke.com/seema-mcardle.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The John Blanke Project</a>, Seema says: &nbsp;
&ldquo;Representation matters as by seeing ourselves in stories, we learn and dream of what we could become and achieve.&nbsp;
&ldquo;To know that Black people existed in Britain in the past is powerful, as it counteracts the racist rhetoric we hear in society claiming People of Colour are &lsquo;foreigners&rsquo; that don&rsquo;t belong.&nbsp;
&nbsp;&ldquo;We may never find a better representation of a Black Tudor than John Blanke and this is why I believe in celebrating his amazing journey, talents and phenomenal success.&rdquo;
<h2> Seema's writing journey&nbsp;</h2>
After being selected for the <a href="https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/get-involved/writers/escalator/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Centre for Writing&rsquo;s Escalator programme</a> (2023-24), an annual programme that celebrates East Anglian writers whose voices are underrepresented on UK bookshelves, Seema worked on her debut children&rsquo;s novel with mentorship from award-winning author Ashley Hickson-Lovence.
Through this, she developed a &lsquo;middle-grade time-slip adventure&rsquo; novel, The Golden Goblet. &nbsp;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve created diverse characters I identify with,&rdquo; says Seema, &ldquo;that I&rsquo;ve taken on a thrilling adventure, while shining a light on amazing British People of Colour from the past.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Seema&rsquo;s novel is now on submission to publishers, and she is represented by literary agent Kerry-Ann Bentley (from KAB Literary agency). &nbsp;&nbsp;
This creative milestone follows earlier recognition, including her winning Faber&rsquo;s FABPrize 2020 Publisher&rsquo;s Prize, and being a shortlisted writer for Penguin Random House&rsquo;s WriteNow 2021 competition.&nbsp;
This summer, she spoke at an Essex Writers Festival event, In Conversation with Ashley Hickson-Lovence, sharing insights into her journey on the Escalator mentoring programme and how to find your writing community. &nbsp;&nbsp;
Later this year, on Sunday 26 October at 1-2pm, Seema will host Prof Keon West, author of The Science of Racism, for <a href="https://norwichbookfestival.co.uk/whats-on/keon-west-the-science-of-racism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Norwich Book Festival</a> at The Forum. They will discuss racism in Britain, following scientific evidence, and how we may work together to counteract it.

Learn more about Wear Red Day in Black History Month and Show Racism the Red Card – and how you can take part – from Seema McArdle, a writer, educator and anti-racism ambassador here at UEA.

Spotlight on Seema McArdle

<h3>Grace Mead P&eacute;rez Gonz&aacute;lez (LDC18) studied BA English Literature at UEA, graduating in 2021. She now works as a Pitch Coordinator at law firm Bird &amp; Bird. We interviewed her to find out more about her career story.</h3>
&nbsp;
<h4>What have you been up to since you graduated?</h4>
Oh, lots of things! I went out to Dublin to study a Masters at Trinity in Identities and Cultures of Europe. About half-way through I realized it wasn&rsquo;t for me, but I loved Dublin which is just the most amazing city and is also where I met Alvaro, my husband. So that was really cool and I stayed on there for a while, and then did some travelling, and lived in Spain for a few months, which is where Alvaro is from. (We celebrate our two-year anniversary on Friday!) While there, I did an editing and proofreading course with the Chartered Institute of Proofreaders, and a bit of freelance proofreading, editing and translating. When I came back to the UK, I started job hunting. I set up a website with some samples of my writing, and even had professional photos taken for it (which I hated)! &nbsp;I sent off a mail shot to over 150 local companies, and out of it got quite a few interviews &ndash; which was great experience. I also put my CV up on Glassdoor, and a recruiter got in touch and I got my first job as a bid administrator, working in the bid team of a company that dealt with managed print (supplying printers to offices) and things like that. You don&rsquo;t think when you&rsquo;re five &lsquo;I want to grow up and become a bid manager&rsquo; but actually what I&rsquo;ve discovered is that it&rsquo;s a job that uses a lot of the skills I learned at uni. I&rsquo;ve since moved to working as a bid coordinator in the legal industry which is great, and my job includes a wide variety of tasks which keeps things very interesting.
<h4>Tell me about that: how has your degree in English Literature influenced your career do you think?</h4>
Well bid management is actually one of those jobs that specifically asks for an English Literature degree in the job description! And I definitely use all the writing skills I honed at UEA &ndash; it can be a really writing-focussed job. Bidding is basically writing a competitive essay, telling a client why our services are the best and most suited to their needs. Reading comes in too: you have to read and analyse long documents, with an eye for the essentials but also the small things. That&rsquo;s something that if I hadn't done English and had that experience, I would have found really difficult.
<h4>Going into UEA, did you have a career ambition or a career specific career path in mind?</h4>
I knew I wanted to do something creative, and I knew that I'd always liked writing.&nbsp; I probably wanted to go and be a reader and a publisher and just read books for a living, which would still be lovely, to be honest!
<h4>Tell me about your experiences studying at UEA.</h4>
Despite COVID, my experience at UEA was great. I really enjoyed university life. The course itself was really good for someone like me, particularly because it was all coursework based and I had struggled in school with the rigidity of exam based learning. In terms of modules, I really enjoyed the Shakespeare module, and there was an optional module I took in first year about the witch hunts in early modern Europe, that I loved. And then there was a postcolonial course that I really enjoyed and journalism &ndash; that was a really good one too. Basically I enjoyed all of them! Norwich itself is amazing, it's such a nice city: there's something about it that makes you feel like it's a small town, but it's still got all of those city things. That was fantastic. And then I really loved meeting lots of like-minded people, people with similar interests. I know you might find that at any university, but I really think that at UEA there wasn&rsquo;t the kind of competitiveness that you might get elsewhere. Everyone was really supportive: in classes everyone was just there for the love of learning and to support each other. It was really helpful for me to meet people on a similar wave-length. And I went on to live with people on my course in my third year, and we had a really, really good time, just loving English, and basically talking about books all the time!
<h4>Did you do any extracurriculars?</h4>
I tried a few different things but didn&rsquo;t stick with anything until my third year, when I did an internship as a shortlister on the UEA publishing project. This was really cool and aligned with my interest in reading and editing. It was also led by one of my close friends so we had a lot of fun. There are so many clubs and societies at UEA so there&rsquo;s definitely opportunity to find friends with similar interests and get involved!
<h4>What were your experiences of Norwich as a city? Do you come back at all?</h4>
I do come back! I met a girl at&nbsp;UEA who was also doing English Lit, and she became my absolute best friend &ndash; I was her maid of honour, that kind of thing &ndash; and until recently she was living in Norwich, so I used to love coming to visit her, to see her, but also to be in Norwich. In our uni days there was a lot of clubbing and bars, but now we go to coffee shops, restaurants &ndash; there&rsquo;s a really nice Belgian restaurant, the Belgian Monk. Oh, and there&rsquo;s a little caf&eacute; just down from there, Slice + Dice, where you can play board games and have coffee and cake! And then there&rsquo;s the market, which is lovely, and the whole city is just really pretty.&nbsp;
<h4>Would you recommend studying at UEA and why?</h4>
Yes, I absolutely would. Particularly for people that are maybe a little bit nervous about leaving home for the first time just for all the reasons I've said. It's just feels like such a welcoming environment and Norwich feels safe. It&rsquo;s got that kind of small town charm but in a city somehow. And in terms of&nbsp;UEA itself &ndash; there&rsquo;s the variety of things to choose from when choosing modules, and then in LDC there are great support systems there too. I would 100% recommend UEA &ndash; you could put that as my tagline!
<h4>Is there any advice you'd give to current like students or current students wanting to follow a similar career path to you?&nbsp;</h4>
I appreciate how difficult it is post graduation to go out there and find your first job. I suppose partly the advice I'd give is it's a numbers game, so you&rsquo;ve got to keep applying. But if you've got the kind of skills that you've learned from studying English they will definitely come in handy. Bid management requires lots of the things that I learned at uni, and they have been really useful, so it&rsquo;s definitely a good choice. Everyone in my team at my current job studied English at university! It&rsquo;s also a job you can find at a lot of companies, so you&rsquo;re not limited to using the skills and experience you gain in one industry.&nbsp;
<h4>What&rsquo;s next for you?</h4>
At the moment, I just want to continue to find out what it is about work that I enjoy in general and what my priorities are. My company recently arranged for me to do a project management course, for example, which I really loved, and the skills I learnt through that are transferable to a variety of things. &nbsp;I'm only two years into my career, so I've got plenty of time.&nbsp;
<h4>Is there anything else you&rsquo;d like to say about yourself or your time at UEA?</h4>
I think the advice I&rsquo;d given anyone starting at UEA is to really enjoy it, and do lots of extracurricular stuff. Just go and try everything once because you never know what you might find out that you like! On a more serious note, I would also mention again the support systems in place &ndash; if you&rsquo;re struggling at uni reach out to your advisor or a supervisor you trust because help and support are available, and I found the systems in place to be so helpful and understanding.
<a class="ui-button" href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/course/undergraduate/ba-english-literature">Study BA English Literature at UEA</a>
&nbsp;

Grace Mead Pérez González (LDC18) studied BA English Literature at UEA, graduating in 2021. She now works as a Pitch Coordinator at law firm Bird & Bird. We interviewed her to find out more about her career story.

Being a Bid Manager and studying English Literature at UEA

<h4>Rebecca Quigg studied BA English Literature at UEA from 2004 to 2007. After working at a booksellers she returned to UEA for a Master's and then a PhD, before going to establish a career in communications. She now works as an Associate Consultant for professional services firm&nbsp;WSP</h4>
&nbsp;
What have you been up to since you graduated?
I&rsquo;d managed literary events during my time as a student. This was as part of my job working for Toppings &amp; Company Booksellers in Ely. My first really big event, one which meant a lot to me because he was somebody that I'd read, was Terry Pratchett in Ely Cathedral. We had over a thousand people! We also had Margaret Atwood, Hilary Mantel and UEA alumnus Kazuo Ishiguro!
I ended up returning to UEA to do a Master&rsquo;s in modern and contemporary literature. And from there I went straight into doing a part-time PhD. So that was 2009 to 2016, and I graduated from that in July 2017.
Afterwards, I went into alumni relations working for one of the University of Cambridge colleges. I ended up doing some interim work as Deputy Development Director there before I left. And then I moved on to do comms and engagement work for the Cambridge and Peterborough Combined Authority, which was fascinating.
I started working there on October 19th 2019 &ndash; and four months later we went into lockdown. Everything was suddenly very different, particularly how we communicated with people. So, I moved from being in an organisation that was really keen for me to be sending out press releases to needing to talk to actual people about what was happening and what we were going to do about it. The Facebook page became very important! I did a lot of social media work. It was very instructive in the ways of how people engage on social media, and in understanding a lot about how politics and general public perceptions intersect.
I was there for five years, after which I moved to work on comms and engagement for an engineering consultancy firm. I specialise in transport projects and infrastructure projects, so helping to make sure that local people understand what's happening about the environment that they live in, helping them understand how they can have a say, which is so important.
If you're talking about bus services, for example, I try to make sure that the people we hear from are the people who use the bus most.
At the moment I'm on quite a unique project: a full-time secondment for a nationally-significant infrastructure project. It&rsquo;s a challenge, but very exciting!
What was your ambition for your career when you started at UEA? Did you have a specific career path in mind?
Absolutely not; not at all! I was very young when I came to university. My birthday was five days before I arrived at UEA! I think I knew that an English degree was almost infinitely transferable and that was a conversation I'd had with my parents. I desperately wanted to keep doing the English after A-level. English can take you anywhere, so why wouldn't that be a good thing for you to do?
What made you want to study at&nbsp;UEA?
We came to visit the campus and it was a grotty grey, rainy February day. And I fell in love with it! I remember standing looking into the Square and going, yes, this is where I want to be. It was all about the landscape and the way that the people on campus were moving round its places. I had this incredibly powerful moment where I stood in a place looking at its absolute worst and went: yes, I want to be here.
And interestingly, it wasn't just me that ended up completely seduced by Norfolk. My parents had never really been to visit and they fell in love with Norwich and with the area when I was at university. And in 2013 they relocated and moved up to live on the North Norfolk coast. All because I went to UEA!
Did you get involved with any societies or&nbsp;extracurriculars during your time at UEA?
UEA gave me the flexibility to be able to work when I needed to, which gave me the money to be able to have that bit of extra breathing space; to have a bit room for manoeuvre, and that was important. But the other thing that was really important to me when I was here was the Creative Writing Society, which I joined in my first year (even though I wasn&rsquo;t doing a creative writing degree). It's where I met my husband!
In your career what key tasks &amp; skills are involved on a day-to-day basis, and what are/have been the most rewarding/challenging aspects?
The thing I do most in my day is talk to people. I spend a lot of time unpicking problems for people and helping them understand why the problem exists and what we can do to make it better. And that's both helping people to find the right way of communicating themselves, but also helping them to understand.
It can involve the people who live amongst where the developments are happening. They can feel like the things that are happening are completely out of local people's control, so I&rsquo;m helping them understand what's going on and helping them to frame questions. It can involve taking technical documentation and finding a way to explain that is both clear and reassuring.
But it&rsquo;s also about listening to people and having some emotional intelligence regarding how people might be feeling. Empathy is a big part of what I do!
Has your degree influenced your career?
I spend a lot of time understanding how people feel and trying to write for them in a way that is going to meet them where they are. And that is absolutely a critical skill that I learned during my degree: understanding things like register and tone, and seeing practical examples of that. Understanding the nuts and bolts of what a piece of writing is doing and how it might be read. It's not just about how one person reads a thing: it's about recognising the hundreds of different ways of reading and understanding.
And my writing obviously is a million times better than it would have been if I'd not done my degree! I was allowed to come at things from different angles during my degree. And I could write creatively as well as critically, which was both exciting and instructive. I write for so many different audiences in my job. I write for technical audiences. I write for local people. I write for colleagues who maybe have some understanding, but not all. And my ability to do that comes absolutely from my degree.
And also the ability to talk to people, because my undergraduate seminars were my first experience of having those critical, difficult conversations &ndash; sometimes really difficult, emotive conversations as well. And I think that's one of the things about studying literature, isn't it, that some of the conversations you have are about the way that people feel, and why?
Doing that in a way that's tactful and thoughtful while still not giving ground on your own view, is a skill that I don't think anybody really realises they're gaining until they come to use it &ndash; which I do, now, in my job!
What personal or professional achievement are you most proud of?
I helped support a donation for a building that will keep students safe and comfortable in one of the Cambridge colleges. I helped to ensure that that happened.
What were your experiences of Norwich as a city? Is there anything in particular that you miss or have fond memories of?
I would move back to Norwich in a heartbeat, if, professionally, I could. I would be back in Norwich because for me it's perfect. And, actually, I think this is very true for people who are coming to Norwich for university as well. It's that it's big enough to be exciting and small enough not to feel anonymous. I always think it's the perfect size for a city. It's got an interesting history. It's got interesting shops; it's got interesting restaurants. There is everything you could possibly need in Norwich.
You've also got the countryside right there, and you're close to the seaside. We used to do day trips to Cromer all the time!
It&rsquo;s safe-feeling as well. As a woman walking along the street at night, I very rarely felt uncomfortable or unsafe. I think for my parents that was a big thing as well. They could tell that I was happy and comfortable in Norwich and I think also they felt that it was a friendly, comforting place to leave.
The fact that Norwich could feel like another home was huge for me. It's a really friendly place to be. Norwich is extraordinarily special to me still and I still get to come and visit now and again. We tend to leave the kids with my parents for a day and then we go to Norwich for the day and we get to go out!
Would you recommend studying at&nbsp;UEA? Why?
There are so many things about UEA! UEA was always somewhere where I felt that I could be myself, both academically and personally. Emotionally and academically, UEA gave me everything I could possibly need. I never felt that I was expected to be something else. I feel very much that I got to stretch my academic wings. It was life-changing! And actually, that's true of all my friends, whatever their backgrounds were, however they came to UEA.
I met so many wonderful people here. Many of my closest friends are UEA bods.
Is there any advice you would give to current students, wishing to follow a similar career path to you?
What I would say for anybody who's a current literature student at UEA is, don't underestimate the transferable skills that your degree is giving you; the ability to think critically, the ability to have open, clear, confident conversations in a way that doesn't expect you to back down. And particularly for female students. For women doing their degrees now, the ability confidently to stand up for your viewpoint and to be able to practise that in a safe environment is so important. Don't take that for granted and remember that you were given that opportunity as an undergraduate and you deserve it in your career.
What is next for you?
I&rsquo;ve started a secondment working on a major infrastructure project. I'm really interested in how we help people on these huge projects because they have to happen, especially those involving renewable energy sources. You are looking at significant amounts of local disruption and we know that finding the space to be able to do what we need to support our internet use, our energy use, is crucial; to try and make those things environmentally friendly; to try and reach net zero.
I don't think there's ever not going to be space for work like mine and we have a government who have emphasised the need for consultation and engagement with local people when we're doing work of that kind.
<a class="ui-button" href="#https://www.uea.ac.uk/course/undergraduate/ba-english-literature">Study BA English Literature at UEA</a>

An interview with Rebecca Quigg, a former UEA student who studied BA English Literature from 2004 to 2007. She now works as an Associate Consultant for professional services firm WSP.

Using a UEA Literature degree to get ahead in Communications

<h4 class="MsoNormal">Ahead of the 2025 ceremonies, we are pleased to showcase an alumni graduation story. Lenny Neale-Krommenhoek and Beverley (Bev) Appleby both graduated with a BSc in Nursing in 2015. However, they had actually met in Greece back in 2008. This is their story.</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal">Lenny (Lecturer in Nursing Sciences) and Bev (Wellbeing Advisor &ndash; Mental Health) both now work at UEA. They answered a few questions on their UEA journey. </h4>
How did you both come to meet in Greece in 2008?
Lenny: I was living on Crete at the time and Bev visited with her parents, who were our friends. This was the first time we met, and our friendship started straight away.
Bev: We got on so well right from the start - I remember Lenny saying I reminded her of a young version of herself at the time. I was very uncertain at that point what I wanted to do with my life, having had many jobs in differing sectors.
What inspired you both to study Nursing at UEA?
Lenny: I was already a nurse, having studied nursing in the Netherlands in the mid-1980s. However, I studied for a BSc nursing after moving to the UK and getting an opportunity to work at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
Bev: I started my studies in 2011. I had been working as a support worker and team leader in a residential setting providing support to people with mental health difficulties and learning disabilities. It was this job that inspired me to seek a career in nursing. Having completed an Open University Health and Social care course I was accepted as a mature student into the 2011 cohort. We both went on to graduate in 2015.
How did you re-connect during your studies?
Bev: We did not really study together because we were in different areas of nursing, but we discovered in 2015 that we were due to graduate together. It felt special that it was by chance that we graduated at the same time, and I was very pleased to share this graduation experience with Lenny.
And how often do you keep in touch now?
Lenny: We work very rarely together, but our paths do cross when students need support. Privately though, we are still in contact. I attended Bev&rsquo;s wedding and was present during the birth of Bev&rsquo;s son.
Bev: It&rsquo;s wonderful that again our life paths cross, the highlights being: initially meeting in Greece, then sharing our graduation, amazing support from Lenny during the birth of my son and now both of us working at UEA and enjoying our jobs. Throughout, we have kept in touch and meet regularly to catch up &ndash; mostly we discuss our personal lives but occasionally the subject of nursing comes up in conversation. We remain professional and never share confidential details. As Lenny says the friendship doesn&rsquo;t really influence our professional paths - our nursing experiences are very different to date!

Ahead of the 2025 ceremonies, Lenny Neale-Krommenhoek and Beverley (Bev) Appleby discuss meeting in Greece and going on graduate together in Nursing in 2015.

Meeting in Greece and Graduating together 7 years later: Lenny and Bev's Alumni Story

The journey to medical school can be daunting, particularly for students with limited guidance on starting down this career path. &nbsp;
The University of East Anglia&rsquo;s (UEA) Preparing for Medicine outreach programme is designed to provide transformative support for aspiring medical students, to equip them with essential skills, confidence, and clarity about their career path ahead.&nbsp;
Laura Flower and Imogen La Chapelle are two final-year Medicine students who previously participated in the programme. We spoke to them about how their residential experience supported their decision to study Medicine at UEA, as well as how the programme prepared them for the rigorous application process.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I am continuously grateful for the support it gave me&rdquo; &ndash; Laura &nbsp;
&ldquo;I was certain that UEA was right for me&rdquo; &ndash; Imogen&nbsp;
Now serving as mentors, they also reflect on the rewarding opportunity to guide future medical students on the same journey that shaped their own aspirations:
<h4>Was there a moment during the programme that gave you clarity and reinforced your ambition to pursue medicine? &nbsp;&nbsp;</h4>
Laura: &ldquo;While I always knew I wanted to pursue a career in medicine, I wasn&rsquo;t exactly sure what medical school would include or what would be expected of a medical student day-to-day, until I took part in the Preparing for Medicine residential.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Through the residential specifically, I was able to experience first-hand some of the activities a medical student would get involved in &ndash; from anatomy and problem-based learning with small group teaching, to learning clinical skills like CPR and basic life support. I absolutely loved my time there, spending &lsquo;a day in the life of a medical student&rsquo;, so this really affirmed that medicine was for me!&rdquo;&nbsp;
Imogen: &ldquo;I think the whole experience just made me feel incredibly supported and motivated to study Medicine at UEA. &nbsp;
&ldquo;Before the residential, I had done a lot of research into different medical schools and was still quite unsure about where I wanted to study yet after completing it, I was certain that UEA was right for me. Everyone was incredibly friendly throughout the experience, and I learnt so much.&rdquo;
<h4>How did the programme equip you with the skills and confidence to progress onto studying medicine? &nbsp; &nbsp;</h4>
Laura: &ldquo;As a first-generation university student and the only student to ever apply for medicine from my sixth form, I initially found the medicine application process terrifying. When I applied to the outreach programme, I was unaware of the entrance exam, scared of the interview process and intimidated by how competitive medicine was. In my mind, I didn&rsquo;t believe I was good enough to apply.&nbsp;
&ldquo;The &nbsp;programme myth busted the entire application process &ndash; making it clear, understandable and, more importantly for me, achievable. With the help and support of the Preparing for Medicine team, they helped me develop the essential skills and confidence for me to go on and apply for medicine. &nbsp;
&ldquo;In fact, it equipped me so well that I gained a place at all four medical schools I applied to, something I am incredibly proud of. I truly believe that I owe my place to the programme, and I am continuously grateful for the support it gave me.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Imogen: &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s likely I would still be studying medicine &ndash; I&rsquo;ve wanted to be a doctor since I was a young child and have always been very motivated to get into medical school successfully. However, the programme gave me much more confidence in myself and in understanding the application process. &nbsp;
&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t just the residential itself, but also the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) study day, the mock interview, the personal statement activity. There was so much support throughout that getting into medical school felt much more achievable.&rdquo;
<img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/185167/720x350/a6ff2066f6/workshop-720x350.jpg" border="0" alt="Participants from the 2024 Preparing for Medicine cohort in a workshop" width="720" height="350">Images: Participants from the 2024 Preparing for Medicine cohort in a workshop
<h4>Medicine is a demanding field &ndash; was there a specific challenge you faced during your studies that made you reflect on why you chose this path? How did you overcome it? &nbsp;&nbsp;</h4>
Laura: &ldquo;You&rsquo;re right &ndash; medicine is very demanding at times! In my fourth year at UEA, I completed a placement in oncology and palliative care medicine, and I found these specialties very emotionally challenging. For every patient that you can treat and help, there will be another where treatment hasn&rsquo;t worked and then your care focuses on quality of life, as opposed to quantity of life. &nbsp;
&ldquo;I often found myself speaking to close friends and family about how sad and helpless I felt, and I think sharing my emotions with others really helped me overcome how I was feeling. We also had reflection sessions at medical school, where we could discuss how we were feeling, and this gave us another chance to speak to a senior member of staff about what we had found challenging and how we could learn from what we experienced. &nbsp;
&ldquo;I met some of the most incredible people whilst studying this module and their stories made me reflect on why medicine is such a beautiful career, but also what makes life so very precious.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Imogen: &ldquo;The biggest challenge I have faced in medical school has definitely been my recent experience of revising for finals. I&rsquo;ve been trying to manage the stress of exams alongside placements and revision.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve found that the best way of overcoming stress and self-doubt is lots of communication with my partner and family, along with making sure to prioritise my mental health. If I am having a tough day and struggling with motivation, then I always try and take a step back to spend time on myself.&rdquo;&nbsp;
<h4>You're now acting as a mentor for other Preparing for Medicine students. How have you found this experience?&nbsp;</h4>
Laura: &ldquo;I am very grateful for the opportunity to have been a UEA mentor to other students for the past three years! As someone who has been through the programme myself, I find it very rewarding to further inspire future students to study medicine and give back to the programme that did so much for me as a student. &nbsp;
&ldquo;The application process to even apply for a medicine degree is a minefield and I think having a UEA medical student mentor (like me) to help guide students through the process &ndash; from day one of the programme to the day they collect their A-level results &ndash; is an enormous help!&rdquo;&nbsp;
Imogen: &ldquo;I have loved mentoring over the last couple years for the programme &ndash; it has been an incredibly rewarding experience to help aspiring medics, so many years after I was in the same position.&rdquo;&nbsp;
<a class="ui-button" href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/study/information-for/young-people/events/preparing-for/medicine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Discover more about Preparing for Medicine</a>
<a class="ui-button" href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/about/norwich-medical-school" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Find out more about Norwich Medical School</a>

Two final-year Medicine students, Laura and Imogen, share how their experiences on UEA’s Preparing for Medicine outreach programme supported their medical aspirations.

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