• The memory of trees
  • I am Autistic

    My name is Jenn and I am autistic. It could however just be that my name is autistic and I am Jenn. You see both these concepts are interchangeable in my head; existing the same space. They join my other identities as a mum, a fashion designer,  a digital marketing professional, a business owner and…

  • Air and light and time and space: how successful academics write (a book review)

    Given I am about to begin writing my dissertation the process of ‘how’ to write, as in, finding the time, space, company, motivation and craft to write are of interest to me. Writing has always been an agonising, if increasingly more rewarding process, as I find my own style and confidence in the feedback that…

  • My United Kingdom travels
  • Derby’s food heroes

    Derby’s food heroes

    Having lived in Derby, albeit in two houses now for nearly seven years, I am reaching the watershed where it will overtake, in the next eighteen months, the places I have previously spent the longest in my life. I have had a rather nomadic existence up until now but overall I like Derby. It has…

  • The ethics of ethics

    So I have to make my position very clear here. I am in no way denying the need for an independent ethics approval process, within either the academy or the NHS. The need to ensure absolute protection for vulnerable groups and individuals is paramount. Ethics reviews also ensure research methodologies and rationale are robust. As…

  • DLINKS library logo

    DLINKS library logo

    Derbyshire is a large county with a diverse spread of population and geography. Much of this is covered by the Derbyshire Community Foundation Trust, whose staff can struggle to reach a medical library in the course of their work, given commuting time. Collaborating to solve this problem, the three library services across the different trusts…

  • The beginning…

    The beginning…

    This… Researchers cannot assign value to one meaning without acknowledging the role that they personally play within this construction (Guba & Lincoln, 1989). Qualitative research has usefully attempted to acknowledge this limitation through reflexivity (MacBeth, 2001; Willig, 2001). Reflexive research requires an awareness of the researcher’s contribution to the construction of meaning and the improbability of remaining neutral,…