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Draft for page 'Rebecca Westcott (Author)':

= Rebecca Westcott =

Rebecca Smith (born 6 October 1974), published under her pen name Rebecca Westcott, is a British author and teacher. Her most prominent work: Can You See Me? is a collaboration with autistic writer Libby Scott, which has received widespread praise from the autistic community for its realistic portrayal of an autistic voice. She has written five books for younger audiences, published with Puffin and Scholastic Press. She has also written adult fiction under the name Rebecca Smith.

Name
Married Rebecca Smith, when publishing her first novel Dandelion Clocks, Rebecca's agent and publisher suggested she write under her maiden name to distinguish herself, due to the popularity of her surname. When her first adult novel was published in 2019, she chose to use her married name to differentiate her adult and child works.

Birth and family
Rebecca Westcott was born on 6 October 1974 in Chester, England, the daughter of Kerry Westcott. Her parents met in [xxx] and engaged in a brief romance before fleeing to Switzerland for a time after Kerry became pregnant, only to return a short while before Rebecca's birth. Her mother's story went on to inspire the her second book, Violet Ink.

Childhood
Rebecca's mother was only 19 when she gave birth, and Rebecca's grandparents supported them for the first years of her life. Rebecca's biological father left when she was only a few years old, leaving her mother to care for her alone. Rebecca's sister Elizabeth was born when Rebecca was [xxx] months old, and shortly afterwards the family left Chester to move to Southern Wiltshire with her mothers boyfriend.

The Westcott's lived in Wiltshire as Rebecca grew up, often living below the breadline, until her mother met Samuel Wiggs, a widower and judge, at Sunday Mass, when Rebecca was 17. They began dating and later married, marking a turn in the families fortune away from poverty.

[something about music?]

Education
As a child, Rebecca attended [xxx], a local primary school. However, due to her home some distance from the school, she had to take a 40 minute bus journey each day from the age of [xxx] (citation needed). Rebecca attended Shaftesbury School, which has origins dating back to 1718, where she studied English, xxx and xxx at A-Level, achieving [grades].

Rebecca attended Exeter University in 1993 to earn a BA and B.Ed. in Teaching and Drama studies. She had not previously thought she would attend university prior to her Mother's new marriage, but her new step-father wanted her to have an education and so assisted in funding her study.

Marriage and Family
Rebecca met her husband, Adam Smith, during her third year of study at Exeter. The pair married in the summer of 1997, a short while after their graduation, and had their first child, Zachary Smith, in 2000, when the family lived in Bournemouth. Their second child, Georgia Smith, was born in early 2002, also in Bournemouth. The family moved to Melksham then Shaftesbury, in North Dorset, in 2004, and Rebecca had her third child, Reuben Smith, in 2007.

Career
After graduation, Rebecca taught at various primary schools across the south of England as she and her partner moved house. Shortly after moving to Shaftesbury, Rebecca found work as an english teacher in a local category C male prison, Guys Marsh, where she worked for 4 years before leaving after the birth of her third child. She has said that it was one of the most interesting places she has taught.

Rebecca began writing Dandelion Clocks in the summer of 2012, after discovering her old diaries in her mother's house. After an initial rejection from agents, she was signed by literary agent Julia Churchill. Several publishers were interested in the publication of Dandelion Clocks, but right eventually went to publisher Puffin, along with a three book contract. Rebecca wrote Violet Ink and Five Things They Never Told Me in the following year. Her three books with Puffin were published on 6th March 2014, 3 July 2014 and 5 March 2015, making for three books published within a year of her debut.

Rebecca currently splits her time between working as a Music and French teacher at Mere Primary School, Dorset, and writing from home.