THERE must be something in the water at St Bernard's in Westcliff.

The convent school has produced several high flyers over the years such as Oscar winner Helen Mirren, actress Emma Chambers, who played Alice in the Vicar of Dibley and successful author Bernadine Kennedy.

In fact, Bernadine and Helen were at school at the same time, but while Helen ditched the bright lights of Southend for Los Angeles when she got rich and famous, Bernadine set up home in Prittlewell where has just written her sixth novel, Past Chances.

"Helen was a bit older than me, but I remember her well from school," says Bernadine.

"I think it was obvious even then that she would be famous. She was always a bit of a rebel and very beautiful."

Although the nuns didn't encourage the girls to particularly become high profile, successful women, that is nevertheless what both Helen, Emma (who was then Nicola Chambers) and Bernadine have become.

Bernadine's very first novel was a huge success and after working as an air hostess, swimming instructor and social worker, has now settled into the comfortable role of author.

"I used to write freelance features and travel features," she says.

"I started doing that as an extra and I'd never thought about writing a book before. But then the first one sold really quickly, so I carried on."

As an accountant, Bernadine's father had a glamorous lifestyle, living abroad in Singapore and Nigeria throughout her childhood. Between schooling, Bernadine would spend time with her parents and brother in these exotic countries, but her novels tend to stick more closely to home.

In Past Chances Bernadine conveys how the damage caused in the past can cause one's life to spiral out of control. It is written through the eyes of Eleanor Rivington, who has always felt like an outsider. Abandoned by her mother and brought up in fear of her father, she's desperate to leave home and live like other girls in London in the seventies.

When a barman from work invites her to share a flat with him and two of his friends, it is her chance to break free, but when Eleanor confronts her father the terrible tragedy that follows haunts her forever.

"I write about what I know," says Bernadine.

"I read the papers and the magazines - they're brilliant for getting ideas. I also watch a lot of day time TV which is great for inspiration!"

Past Chances is set in the Seventies, when women were just starting to discover their independence.

"I think the Seventies was an interesting era," says Bernadine.

"There was a big cross over in the way women were. The Sixties was the start of something new, but the Seventies was when the change really happened."

Bernadine was herself a young woman trying to make her way in the world during the Seventies. Like school pal Helen, she was destined for bigger and better things.

"I'm just finishing a new novel," says Bernadine.

"It's based here in the present day, but with flashbacks to when two sisters got separated by circumstances. I tend to write one novel a year."

Past Chances was published in paperback last month.