Satchi, I love the fact that you bother.
If you have no knowledge, I doubt a PhD is for you Kasturi_salagare.
I suggest you start with the basics; English grammar would be a good start for you.

Depends on your topic and what research you've done in the area previously.
Quite often a literature review is just a mechanism for helping you to get your head around a topic.......
I'm sure it'll come up eventually, but I wouldn't worry too much. Your a Classicist right?? I'm an archaeologist (prehistory) and parameters are much less clear than with Classics so you tend to have to spell out what you're going to do via a literature review, to enable you to defend it properly in the end!
Sx

Discrimination exists in all forms of life...
Although you might want to consider it as a 'grumpy academic' moment. Maybe you'd have been better off explaining and asking to meet up to talk about strategies to avoid this happening in future. How long was the conference? How much did you miss? Are you able to take notes whilst listening -- by hand? -- on a laptop? -- using a digital recorder??
Was the 'very poor excuse' in the context of a diatribe about other things??

I have moments of despair followed by moments of happiness! I've probably submitted close to 20k words now (although in bits and pieces all over the place!) that will, apparently, eventually become my 'Part I' of my thesis.
I probably see my supervisor twice/ 3 weeks, which works really well as it keeps me on track, and he's always really helpful (I feel really lucky given some of the other reports!!). Can't wait to get started on proper data collection though!!!
Sarahx

Incidentally, I really feel for you with them not being your specialist area.... but I wouldn't be afraid to admit this. That way you can then suggest that X might be a better person to talk to. Undergrads have a tendency to think that if you're doing a PhD you have all the answers.

Pamw.... I think that's a very good idea; emails are very easy to misinterpret (or just not get the subtleties of what you're getting at across) so that would enable you to see more clearly the full situation. Also.... she's unlikely to give you poor feedback if you've taken the time to meet her face to face, even briefly.

I hate to go against the grain but I think maybe you were slightly unfair on the student in the first instance.
I still go to my supervisor and ask for reading guidance (having looked myself) if I'm struggling, and this is what he expects.
Undergraduate is a BIG jump from sixth-form level and you can't suddenly expect students to jump head-first into the adult world of researching. Requesting addition readings can be quite nerve-wracking for undergrads (in my experience) and you don't really want to quell their enthusiasm.

I hate to go against the grain but I think maybe you were slightly unfair on the student in the first instance.
I still go to my supervisor and ask for reading guidance (having looked myself) if I'm struggling, and this is what he expects.
Undergraduate is a BIG jump from sixth-form level and you can't suddenly expect students to jump head-first into the adult world of researching. Requesting addition readings can be quite nerve-wracking for undergrads (in my experience) and you don't really want to quell their enthusiasm.

Bhabha is a bit of a monster though; when once questioned on his unintelligible writing style, he basically said that if the reader didn't understand it then they weren't sufficiently bright....
I think the simple reading principle works to an extent, as long as your writing isn't incredibly dull as a result. I once had a lecturer give me the very patronising advice 'don't use a big word where a small one will do' to which I responded I would do as he told, as long as I hadn't already used said short word sixteen times that paragraph.

Bucket... most people on here will take 'job' to mean 'non academic position' unless they're talking about things in a postdoctoral context.
I think most doctoral applications are heavily dependent upon references, therefore they're not going to want to wait for them and a decision in advance of one of them is often not going to be tenable.

What subject/ University?

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You will have to start by plotting the journey from U.K. to Compuetrs. How much is it likely to cost? What modes of transport will you require? How long will it take?
But seriously, without you asking any specific questions no-one will be able to help.
You need to say where you want to apply/ for what/ what your background is/ etc...

Queen Mary still has a good reputation.... I'm not sure there's a tremendous amount of difference here in terms of prestige. We're not talking Oxford versus Manchester Met.

As Missspacey says, there are so many applications for so few PhD places, whether funded or otherwise, that you have to follow the protocol. Most academic departments will be more interested in academic than professional references. I can't really get my head around peoples' problem with this. My other half recently got a PhD place after 5 years out of academia and used his supervisor from his MA for one, and a lecturer from his BA as another, despite that being in the very distant past....

As Missspacey says, there are so many applications for so few PhD places, whether funded or otherwise, that you have to follow the protocol. Most academic departments will be more interested in academic than professional references. I can't really get my head around peoples' problem with this. My other half recently got a PhD place after 5 years out of academia and used his supervisor from his MA for one, and a lecturer from his BA as another, despite that being in the very distant past....