CRIME fiction favourite Det Cons Gary Goodhew might be based in Cambridge but his roots are firmly in Swindon according to his creator Alison Bruce.

The novelist, who is talking at the literature festival in the central library tomorrow, grew up in the town and made her first foray into writing even before she had left Hreod Burna school.

A fan of Agatha Christie and classic films like Gaslight and to Kill a Mockingbird, she has made a name for herself with Goodhew’s investigations.

But much of her early inspiration came from Swindon and its people.

“I started writing my first book when I lived in Swindon,” she said. “This is really coming back to the place that is going to remind me of when my writing first started.”

Alison’s desire to write made an appearance very early on. As a child she was always jotting down little stories and at 12 she had a poem published by the Pony Club.

Although she left the town at the age of 30 she managed to do a wide range of jobs and all of them provided fodder for her notebook.

“I did bump off my old nextdoor neighbour because I didn’t like her very much. I changed her name though,” she said. “There are a few people from Swindon that have popped up in various ways in the book.”

She used to work at Burderop Hospital and it was on her way in to work that she came up with an idea of a murder story centred on a hospital. Initially she wanted to write it as a screenplay, but was persuaded to tackle it as a book first.

Usually she wrote in her lunch hours and often she would work in the Octagon café by the bus station. The book started life in 1989 and she was still working on it when she left the town nine years later.

She worked for many different firms in Swindon, from the NHS to Railtrack, EMI and a bowling alley. She even had a spell as a taxi driver. “As I was writing I was picking the brains of everyone I worked with for anything useful.”

Originally her detective was going to be based in Swindon, but when she moved to Cambridge, she relocated him as well. “It was, in a way, my professional parting from Swindon.”

She still has family in the town but hasn’t been to the centre for some years and plans to spend a few hours catching up with the changes before her talk at 7.30pm. She might even be inspired to write a short story.

Tickets cost £4 and are available by calling 01793 466454.