Jane Austen's iconic writing desk is set to return to Southampton for the first time in more than 200 years. 

The desk will be put on display at God's House Tower from November 15, marking the first time it has been in the city since the author was alive. 

The exhibition will celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth and will run until February 23, 2025.

Visitors will have the chance to see the desk where Austen drafted early versions of some of her most famous novels.

The exhibition will also feature a contemporary art installation by sculptor Jocelyn McGregor. Ms McGregor was selected from an open call to artists earlier this year.

Her multi-media installation, titled No Notion of Loving by Halves, a quote from Northanger Abbey, will explore the intense female relationships depicted in Austen's letters and novels.

The artist will use performance, body casting, and sculpture in her work. The writing desk is being loaned from the British Library, with support from Art Fund's Weston Loan Programme.

God's House Tower, an award-winning heritage and art venue in Southampton's Old Town, will host the exhibition.

The venue is owned by Southampton City Council and managed by Southampton-based charity 'a space' arts.

The charity has worked with Southampton Forward to secure the loan of the desk. The exhibition will kick off a city-wide programme of events to celebrate the anniversary year.

There will be opportunities for local communities to get involved through workshops, creative commissions, and activities. The programme will be announced at a later date.

Jocelyn said: "In my artistic practice, I’m on the hunt for the point of transition between internal and external, organic and synthetic, and real and imagined worlds.

"Using my own body as a conduit, I combine beauty products, industrial, domestic, organic and synthetic materials and forms to create supernatural hybrid monsters and their imagined habitats.

"With gothic literature and with Jane Austen you have to read between the lines. Austen wrote about a lot of topics that weren’t the norm for women back then.

"She was incredibly progressive. We are an audience looking at her work more than 200 years after it was created."