Tsolidis explores what makes for good doctoral journeys by revisiting the previous four chapters. Using the work of the contributing authors, she provides some key themes related to doctoral study and supervision. The key themes include choice making, writing, ethics and trust, empowerment, desire and instrumentalism. There are no ‘how-tos’, nor is this intended to be a type of study guide. Instead, she draws on the experiences of a group of ‘untypical’ doctoral students: mature-aged women returning to study. The issues raised are a product of this experience. They are compiled many years after the completion of the authors’ doctoral study and include the benefit of hindsight, including about where their PhDs were taken. The aim is to consider the commentary of these non-traditional students as a means of challenging what is commonly constituted as valuable knowledge and, increasingly, the expectation that supervision is expedient.