Rebecca Smith is a Southampton based novelist who has used the city as a key location in her three Bloomsbury published books: 'The Bluebird Café', 'Happy Birthday and all That' and 'Bit of Earth'. Her books are engaging, witty portrayals of family lives and loves, with great observation and description, really good reads that I keenly recommend. Rebecca has spoken to reading groups about her writing and held workshops, being an experienced University tutor. The gift for writing must be in the blood, her mother is the superb author Shena Mackay, whilst Rebecca is also a descendant of Jane Austen - made all the more poignant as Rebecca is on the brink of starting a writer residency at the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton, Hampshire.

I recently met up with Rebecca at the Hawthorns Wildlife Centre on Southampton Common which was an inspiration for her first book - I wanted to find out about Rebecca's choices to use real settings. She spoke about the diversity of the city, how there is so much to draw upon, how the contrasts of old rural Hampshire and the changing cityscape of urban Southampton make for a great subject.

Rebecca also let me know exact locations in and around the city that readers may identify ~

Furzedown Road, Highfield Southampton. SO17 - This is where I imagined the Parouselli family living in Happy Birthday and All That.

Weston Shore SO19. This is where Frank and Melody in Happy Birthday and All That had their fateful encounter.

I imagined Flora in the same novel living in Clausentum Road, St. Cross, Winchester. SO23.

Bevois Valley Road in Southampton. SO14. This is where I imagined The Bluebird Cafe was.

Southampton University's Botanical Garden on the Highfield Campus at SO17 1BJ inspired the garden in A Bit of Earth.