Val Wood, formerly published as Valerie Wood is the award winning author of romantic historical novels set in and around Hull | City of Culture 2017 

 

Val Wood was born in Castleford but now lives in Beverley. She has written 28 novels, all set in and around Hull and the East Riding. Her first novel, The Hungry Tide, published in 1993 won the Catherine Cookson Prize for Romantic Fiction.

 

In 2012 The Val Wood Trail was launched to promote tourism and library services in Hull and the East Riding. The Val Wood Prize followed in 2013 and the international creative writing competition has continued to run annually alongside Hull Central Library. Val’s catalogue of books were named amongst the top loaned titles in UK libraries on BBC Radio 4s Open Book show and Val and her work were also the subject of a feature on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row in 2015 and the BBC documentary Books That Made Britain in 2016. In 2017 Val was awarded an honorary doctorate from The University of Hull. 

 

When she is not writing, Val supports a number of charities including Sight Support (Hull & East Yorkshire) where she holds the position of Vice President. She is also patron of Home Start and Butterflies Memory Loss Support Group and was a volunteer at the Talking Magazine for the Blind for 28 years. Her latest novel is scheduled for release in November 2024.