IF turning the page of your average Stephen King novel gives you a chill, imagine the horror of reading off a page made out of the skin of a man hanged for murder.

It is one of the gruesome delights on offer at a new exhibition of the macabre and bizarre, which opens on the evening of Halloween.

The page, made from the skin of a man hung for murder in 1817, is one of the highlights of the exhibition at Newcastle's City Library.

Local history centre staff have put together a display of old photographs and artefacts in the foyer of the library, in Princess Square, to celebrate 150 years of the public library service.

Opening on Tuesday for two weeks, the unusual display also includes tales of an influenza epidemic in 1918, work from local painters and information about the library's history