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But just how do we inspire these chilling tales of crime? According to Val, author of ITV's Wire in the Blood series, the answer lies in our landscape and personalities, not our criminal activity.

Val, who divides her time between her homes in Alnmouth, in Northumberland, and Manchester, says the region welcomes and supports its writers like no other in the country.

In a field where crime writing can be looked down on by other writers (despite Val's claims they're the "party animals'" of the literature world), she finds it refreshing that writers of different genres will support each other.

Val was the first speaker at the new city library

"In other major cities like Manchester and London you wouldn't get a poet supporting a crime writer by coming to an event.

"People in the North East move quite freely within different modes of expression, and this is typical of the openness of people up here, they're not confined."

Coastal bones

In her latest novel, A Darker Domain, Val looks back to the miners' strikes of the 1980s and the impact it had on communities.

She believes one of the strengths of the North East has been its ability to bounce back after its "heart was ripped out" by Margaret Thatcher.

"Culture has been a significant building block for a region that has been kicked and kicked. But the region has re-invented itself through culture.

"The shipyards are never going to come back, but we've been given a new identity and we keep capitalising on it."Μύ

Val, who grew up in Fife in Scotland, says she has the "coast in her bones" and finds so much inspiration in the geography of the region.

"There are a lot of different kinds of environments in close proximity here - you've got cities, market towns, the coast and the wild open landscapes of the moors.

"It gives you options for backgrounds and styles of living. You find that the story suggests itself if you find a backdrop."

Impressive librarians

So what does the future hold for the North East literary scene?

With the opening of the new city library in Newcastle, Val is filled with optimism.

She said: "It's fantastic that this building has opened at the precise time. In recession if money is tight, you can keep coming back to a library for books.

"I've been really impressed by the librarians in this region, they don't just stamp books, they get off their backsides and do something."

There is still more work to be done though.

Despite "real vibrancy" Val says we need to move culture out of the cities and into smaller market towns such as Berwick-upon-Tweed, so people aren't forced to go to Newcastle or Edinburgh to see something remarkable and different.

With a children's book, TV and film production and the small matter of writing a crime book a year, Val doesn't have much time to embark on the market town cause, but one thing is for certain, she will be staying in the North East.