"They tell us that we live on a tiny crowded island. They try to tell us that we are tiny within ourselves. Tell them to come up here with the skylark, to forget what they think they know, and to look down upon the vastness of the North." David Almond, from Sing the North.

Welcome to our audio series which explores the work created for the New Narratives for the North East project through a series of four podcast episodes. Join us in this episode to explore the North-East's distinctive urban spaces and explore how those on the inside read and think about our cities and towns

Hear from many of the writers involved in the project about the ideas that inspired their work and also their relationship with the region and regional identity. Through interview and extracts of their work as well as the varied sounds of the North East, many of the themes of the work come to the fore. Here we discuss what makes this part of England distinct and what its future might look like. The characters that emerge are not just those of the writers, but also that of the sea, or the Wall, or indeed the multi-faceted region itself.

New Narratives for the North East is a New Writing North commission with the North East Cultural Partnership supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This series is produced for Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council festival supported by Durham University and Arts Council England. The series was made in York by Sonderbug Productions with music specially composed and recorded in Newcastle by Jayne Dent.