A Beverley author is set to top the best seller chart in Hull this Christmas.

Val Wood's 15th novel, Rich Girl, Poor Girl, has already sold double the amount of its nearest rival, penned by American writer Stephanie Meyer, who has had two Hollywood blockbuster's made out of her Twilight series.

The figures, which have been released by Waterstones book store, in Jameson Street, city centre, also reveal Mrs Wood is outselling the likes of Jeremy Clarkson and comedian Peter Kay.

Shane Terry, assistant manager at Waterstone's in Hull, said: "Val Wood must be one of Hull's best loved authors.

"Her novels have huge appeal locally and she's a regular fixture in our bestseller chart.

"Rich Girl, Poor Girl is perhaps her best yet and our sales have been phenomenal this Christmas."

Mrs Wood rose to prominence after becoming the first winner of the Catherine Cookson Prize for Fiction with The Hungry Tide.

Since then she has averaged a book a year.

She said: "It is wonderful to be at the top of the bestseller list in Hull, but then Hull and the East Riding is where my core readership is.

"The people here have always been so supportive of me - they are almost like old friends."

She has recently carried out a number of book signings in the region and says her readership crosses the generations, as well as the gender divide.

Part of the appeal of her work is said to lie in the fact that all of her novels are set in the East Riding.

Mrs Wood says her books are romantic, because they contain love, but she steers clear of the label romantic author.

However, she is happy for her novels to be known as sagas because she is a born storyteller.

She said: "I started telling stories when I was very, very young, even before I could write them down.

"I used to write stories for my daughters when they were young.

"When my daughters left home I thought now it's my time and I started writing."

She says she does not know where the novels, which are set in the nineteenth century, come from.

But her need for story telling has acted as a release and as a form escapism.

For the past 12 years she has been the chief carer for her husband of 50 years, Peter. He suffered from dementia and died eight months ago.

Her latest novel is dedicated to her husband - the inscription reads "It's not the falling down that counts. It's the getting up that counts."