Thanks to all of you for your kind suggestions and I will pass them on. I think the situation is particularly difficult because it is a very small interdisciplinary department - the supervisor doesn't have any other PhD students and the research area is in a niche area, so there are no other buddies to share/moan with. My friend is seriously bright - possibly a threat to her supervisor - so hopefully one way or another she will get through.

Ah an interesting one Sneaks. This supervisor doesn't think it's necessary to do a literature review, just to use the book and references she has selected! I really meant it when I said she was not a good supervisor.

Thanks for your suggestions Sneaks. In fact the daily meetings don't sound so good as the supervisor throws in random comments and suggestions and generally 'checks up' every day, but it feels more like monitoring than supervision. She is a nice person but whenever there is any discussion of any really challenging stuff just evades answering. She keeps trying to keep the student to her own line of research and doesn't allow any wider thinking. Re finding a second supervisor, unfortunately there is one appointed who is a 'token figure' and as I said the head of dept has already said that the PhD student can't change supervisor. It seems that the department is flaunting the university rules that say new lecturers should only be 2nd supervisor at first - but the student is reluctant to go for formal procedures to complain. She is a lovely person too and hates getting into conflict!

I am not a PhD student but very close to someone who is and who doesn't know where to turn for advice. She is a year into a 3 year PhD - chosen for personal reasons in a particular city - high ranking university, and the subject chosen because of the diversity of opportunities it could potentially bring. The supervisor though is in her first year as a lecturer and has turned out to be very poor - only interested in a very narrow field and not widely read, meets the student very frequently (daily!) but just seems to throw in confusion and no real direction, avoids challenging questions. Despite the poor supervision it's likely that the student will pass 1st year, but she has been so miserable all year, working crazy hours but getting little progress. She is now at the point of quitting, as she can't face it any longer, but would really love to continue with a different supervisor. She did go to see the head of dept but didn't get anywhere. Can anyone advise on how it might be possible to get a change of supervisor, without ruffling too many feathers or getting a name as a troublemaker?