She may call herself ‘posh Southern totty’, but award-winning author Freya North is a North- Eastener at heart. She talks to Jenny Laue about her love for the region.

CONSIDERING that Freya North’s latest novel is all about secrets and whether it’s better to conceal or reveal, she’s very open about her passion for the North-East and particularly Saltburn-by-the-Sea.

This is why she has set Secrets, her tenth book in 12 years, in the Victorian town. “I just wanted readers, who don’t know the area, to know why I love it so much,” she says. “It’s undiscovered ground, I feel. People are very familiar with other parts of Yorkshire, but this area always gets overlooked. That’s unforgivable because it has so much to offer.

“There are great contrasts here: beautiful natural landscapes on the one hand, industrial hardness on the other. And if you see the industry in context, it’s not a blight on the landscape at all.”

Although Freya readily admits that she’s a southern city girl, she calls Cleveland and the Tees valley her spiritual home. “I’m mad about the specific part of the North-East in which my last two novels are set (Pillow Talk is set in Stokesley and Great Ayton and won her the Romantic Novel of the Year 2008 award).

“This part of North Yorkshire doesn’t have the brooding drama of the Bronte country or the picturesque beauty of Herriot country. It’s gritty and grimy, but also beautiful and unspoilt,”

says Freya, who says she loves the way the sci-fi landscape of the ICI chemical works is framed by the beautiful Cleveland Hills.

As a writer, Freya is very much into researching her subjects and locations thoroughly.

She happily admits that even though her accountant has hinted that research trips to far-flung exotic destinations are taxdeductible, she hasn’t yet felt the urge to fly so far, preferring North Yorkshire to the Seychelles.

Luckily, setting two novels in the North-East has meant she has absolutely had to make frequent research trips to the place she loves.

“It was fascinating disciplining myself to see Saltburn through my heroine’s eyes. When you are familiar with a place, the tendency is to forget to look up and around and to take the feel of the place for granted. So I made many visits with my camera, my Dictaphone and my notebook.”

Freya’s love affair with our region began more than ten years ago and she blames the quirkiness of Saltburn for stealing her heart.

The seaside town is full of loveable contradictions, she says, and this is the reason why the location works so well.

“Saltburn exemplifies the black and white, the poetry and prose of the entire area where down-to-earthness and drama can happily coexist,”

she says. “What I also find fascinating is that Saltburn’s Victorian heritage is preserved so brilliantly. It’s beautiful, extravagant and, in some cases, flamboyant. It’s not a big place, but quirkily grand.”

Over the years, a sleepy seaside town like Saltburn has seen quite a few changes, which is something Freya has been able to witness and has welcomed because, as she says, even though there has been change, it’s been for the town’s good without “compromising the spirit of the place”. On her frequent visits to the area she’s noted a “growing energy” and “a fresher, more vibrant feel”, of which, in her opinion, founding father Henry Pease would approve.

“It wouldn’t really matter at all if you couldn’t get a cappuccino in Saltburn, but that you now can is actually quite nice.”

Freya’s been shouting her love for the North- East from the rooftops for years and has now caught the attention of the One North East, the region’s development agency, which has asked her to be an official Ambassador for the North- East, an accolade she feels hugely honoured to accept. “When they asked me if I’d like to join their ambassador scheme, I was absolutely thrilled. If I can do anything to help promote the area as a fantastic holiday destination, then I’m very happy to do that through my books and my website.”

■ Secrets by Freya North (Harper, £6.99); freyanorth.com Freya will be at York Library on Wednesday to talk about her new book. The following day, May 14, she will speak in Middlesbrough at Tennis World, Tressick Base, Marton Road. Both events start at 7pm. Tickets for Middlesbrough are £3, contact Jenny Garton on 01642-322388.