Can anybody help me with the above please? I am a law graduate LLB hons and an LPC holder as well as a PGCE in Teaching English. I would really like to do a masters in either of these subjects: 1. creative writing,
2. world Literature and Art or continue in the legal field in: either patents and trade marks, international trade gas and oil. I need advice on any of these as well as funding. thanking you.

Those are two rather different areas! It depends on your long term goals. Where do you see yourself in 5 years time? 10 years? Carrying on the legal field might lead to better job prospects, but it depends on what you want out of life.

Hi shamakhan, do you practice law or do you teach English? And, as Hazy Jane says, which one do you want to pursue in terms of employment.

Can't help you with funding advice, although I suspect that the professional funding might be easier to get than the creative writing funding. However, that being said...I'm doing a PhD in my professional area-so I teach and administrate in high school, and my PhD research topic is in the same area.

The PhD will only advantage me in a personal professional way. It probably won't hinder my career but given my age and present economy (mid career professional- most academic positions will go to younger candidates) it is not likely to really add to it-with the one exception that I will be able to write and publish in my field more readily and will have the confidence and expertise to do so.

A Masters (with a professional focus) has been far more useful for my profession-but I already have one of those.

In hindsight, I think it would have been more rewarding doing further study in a topic of personal interest and passion rather than a professional one-once I had the Masters for work purposes. I enjoy a lot of my study but it is very dry at times and it can feel as if I am just working and then researching (work related) and have no time left for learning about things that I just love to learn about and explore.

In my case, I needed to make up my mind relatively quickly (within a year or so) after finishing my Masters thesis so as to get the fee free scholarship, etc-so this is why I took the pathway above.

If I were choosing now-I would probably go with the personal love not the professional interests.

If I were in your situation, I would probably want to get a professional masters for career reasons and then would want to explore my love of creative writing afterwards as a reward and personal passion. Good luck with the decision making.