He would tell her yarns of his amazing life spent exposing neo-Nazis

Dressed all in black, her left shoulder branded with an imposing ink emblem, this is the inspiration for Stieg Larsson's enigmatic character Lisbeth Salander - the 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'.

Hair dyed black, her piercing eyes set under arched brows, she bears more than a passing resemblance to the anti-hero of the best-selling Millennium crime thriller series.

Angry, alienated and adept at kickboxing, Larsson used the real-life experiences of this young woman to create the fearless anarchist heroine that has captivated millions of readers.

She is Therese Larsson – the author's niece.

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Therese Larsson, Millenium series author Stieg Larsson's niece, was the inspiration for Lisbeth Salander. He was surprised when she got a tattoo of a rose on her shoulder instead of the dragon she had talked about

Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander in the 2009 Swedish-language version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Stieg Larsson in Stockholm. His niece eagerly awaited the rare visits of her uncle to Umeå, when he would tell her stories of his amazing life spent exposing neo-Nazis

Therese (in a high school photo with a classmate) learned how to fight hard as a teenager taking lessons in kickboxing at a local jujitsu club

The Larsson family (left to right): Andreas Rönnlund (Therese's partner), Joakim Larsson (Stieg's brother), Jan-Olof Sjöström (Joakim's brother-in-law), Gun Åberg (partner of the author's father), Erland Larsson (Stieg's father), Mattias Larsson (Stieg's nephew), Therese Larsson and Ann Boström (Joakim's sister-in-law)

Her father Joakim, Stieg Larsson's brother, told MailOnline: 'My daughter Therese was the inspiration for Lisbeth Salander. That has already been established by both Stieg and us.'

As readers wait for the fourth instalment of Larsson's captivating series – The Girl in the Spider's Web – to be published, MailOnline can reveal how the author drew on his niece's troubled adolescence to create the spell-binding character.

Despite being painfully thin from anorexia, the 15-year-old Therese learned how to fight hard, taking lessons in kickboxing at a local jujitsu club.

Therese as she is now. She has a daughter, works as a nurse's assistant and still lives in Umeå

In love with a hopeless drug addict more than five years her senior who was often in trouble with the police, she felt alienated from her family and many of her friends.

Her personal tragedy was compounded by the premature death of first her mother from pancreatic cancer and then her older boyfriend, in an apparent suicide.

Growing up in isolated Umeå, the capital of Sweden's northern region of endless winter nights and all day summer sun, Therese was surrounded by radical politics that made the city the centre of the country's anti-capitalist and vegan movements.

The town, a human outpost just shy of the Arctic Circle surrounded by the frozen waters of the Baltic to the east and the endless pine forests to the west, is littered with references to Larsson's books.

There is a Dragon Street, a Dragon Hotel and anti-fascist graffiti peppers the wooden pedestrian bridge across the iceberg-filled river.

In his only interview about his fearless female character before his premature death in 2004 Larsson said: 'She doesn't look upon society as others do.

'I made her into Salander, 25 years old, with a feeling of being a total outsider. She doesn't know anyone, has no social competence whatsoever.'

So it was through Therese's heart-breaking experiences and real-life tears that Salander was born.

It is ten years since the publication of 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo', and four years since Daniel Craig starred as Larsson's alter-ego Mikael Blomqvist and Rooney Mara as Salander in a Hollywood adaption of the novel - two years after Noomi Rapace played her in a Swedeish language version.

The 2011 Hollywood version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo starred Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander

Therese (fourth from left in the back row) in a photo with her high school class in Umeå. She suffered from anorexia and the 'whole class was concerned', according to classmate Hans Johansson

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has sold more than 75 million copies. The Millennium series - including The Girl who Played with Fire - have made Lisbeth Salander an inspiration to millions

The Dragon Hotel in Umeå. The northern Swedish city is littered with references to Larsson's famous books

Since then Therese has become unwilling to discuss her role in creating the central character.

This may in part be due to the public dispute between her father and grandfather, Joakim and Erland Larsson, and Stieg's long-term partner Eva Gabrielsson over royalties from the book and films.

Eva Gabrielsson is in dispute with the Larsson family over royalties from the Millennium series books and films

However, she's known for a long time that she was the inspiration for her uncle's character.

Therese has detailed the close relationship she enjoyed with the author while he was writing his books and right up until he died from a heart-attack.

'We sent each other hundreds of emails and talked on the phone,' she said in a rare interview with Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

'It was almost like therapy for me. He wanted to listen and was always interested in what I had to say.'

Therese has said her uncle was her role model and a hero who wanted to save the world. Larsson's rare visits to Umeå, where he also grew up, were always a time for celebration.

He didn't come often but the pair kept in constant touch by e-mail and Therese would frequently get essays back in response to her short notes.

Whenever he did visit he would tell her stories of his time spent mixing with Marxist separatist groups while riding buses through Africa, of how a gang of Nazis jumped him outside a restaurant or an assassin had once waited for him outside his office.

'He always had interesting stories to tell everybody,' Therese told Dagens Nyheter. 'But sometimes the stories were too gruesome for children to hear and me and my brother had to go to the kitchen, where we eavesdropped and heard everything anyway.'

She added: 'The books are just Stieg through and through. The area in Stockholm where Mikael Blomqvist lives and works is where Stieg lived.

'We [Lisbeth Salander and me] would of course be friends. I believe she would trust me to be her friend.'

According to Rolling Stone Larsson disapproved when she told him that she had moved in with her high school boyfriend.

'You're too young,' He said. 'A girl your age should be using boys like toys.'

He didn't fault her for taking a job as a nurse's aide instead of applying to college. And he made no comment when she showed him the large rose that she had tattooed on her shoulder.

That she chose a rose, however, was surprising. When she was young, she had often said that she would get a tattoo of a dragon.

Stieg Larsson's long-term partner Eva Gabrielsson with the author. She has condemned the upcoming fourth Millennium series book nothing more than a 'money-making scheme'

An anti-fascist sticker in Umeå. The city is the centre of Sweden's anti-capitalist and vegan movements

American actress Rooney Mara playing Salander in the 2011 version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Aged 20 Therese and her boyfriend travelled to Stockholm in 2004 to meet Larsson but her uncle cancelled on them at the last minute as he was on deadline.

He asked her to wait a little longer, but they had to catch the plane back to Umeå. He apologised profusely and they agreed to make plans to see each other again soon. He died two months later.

Her father Joakim told Expressen newspaper: 'The last time Stieg visited us in Umeå, he pointed to Therese and said that his character Lisbeth was just like Therese - soft and small on the outside, but really hard and tough on the inside.'

Therese was a rebellious teenager during the time Larsson wrote his books. She had pitch black hair, wore dark make-up and leather boots.

She also looked much younger than her age, almost like a boy, which was due to her eating disorder, and had a strong will to help those who were weak.

This is how the troubled teenager is remembered by her High School classmates.

Hans Johansson told MailOnline: 'Therese suffered from anorexia while we were at High School. She was really bad in the first couple of years. The whole class was concerned.'

Mr Johansson helped Therese when she said she wanted to learn how to defend herself.

He told MailOnline: 'I was into kickboxing at the time and I used to train her. Therese was very tough.'

Therese told Dagens Nyheter: 'I got into fights sometimes, but more often I was the one who got in between to stop people from fighting. It did not matter if it was a two-metre tall boy who fought me. I was just angry and felt no fear.'

The last time Stieg visited us in Umeå, he pointed to Therese and said that his character Lisbeth was just like Therese - soft and small on the outside, but really hard and tough on the inside Joakim Larsson

Like many troubled teenage girls Therese's rebellion involved an unsuitable boyfriend.

Mr Johansson told MailOnline: 'Therese had a bad relationship with a guy who had a drug problem. He was quite a bit older than her. He was always getting into trouble. She was about 16 and he was like 22 or 23 at the time.

'He got hepatitis because of the drugs. I met him once or twice and he was a mess. Therese said he broke the law - like addicts do to pay for their drugs.'

Therese Larsson still lives in Umeå, but the teenage anxiety has vanished. She is in a stable relationship with a more suitable man who is the proud father of their beloved daughter.

Despite his death, Larsson has continued to be a benevolent feature in her life. She pays taxes on over £40,000 a year thanks to dividends from the Stieg Larsson Foundation, much more than she could earn in her job as a nursing assistant, her 2013 return reveals.

The Girl In The Spider's Web will be published worldwide on August 27.

The book was completed in November by David Lagercrantz based on a plot outline left by Larsson before he died aged 50.

Mr Lagercrantz is known for co-authoring Swedish football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic's autobiography. The story is shrouded in secrecy so that no details of the plot can get out. But some of Larsson's relatives have been let in on the secret.

Therese's grandfather Erland Larsson told MailOnline: 'I have just finished reading the fourth book. It's really good. But I'm not going to spoil it for you. I cannot tell you what happens.'

Stieg Larsson's 'widow' Ms Gabrielsson - has condemned the book as nothing more than a 'money-making scheme'.

She has said the author would have been 'furious' that someone else had taken over his Millennium Series.

Ms Gabrielsson, 61, from Stockholm, said: 'They say heroes are supposed to live forever. That's a load of c***, this is about money.

'It's about a publishing house that needs money, (and) a writer who doesn't have anything to write so he copies someone else.'

Pictured on the end of the middle row on the right, a young Therese was slight but extremely tough, according to a classmate who trained her at kickboxing

The Larsson family were snubbed by actor Noomi Rapace, who played Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish-language adaption of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, at the 2009 film premiere due to their dispute with Gabrielsson.

She has been cut out of any inheritance as she was not married to Larsson and he died without making a will.

Larsson suffered a heart-attack in November 2004 after he walked up seven storeys to his office in Stockholm where he worked as a journalist and editor of anti-fascist magazine Expo.

His first novel – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – was published a year later and his work has sold more than 75 million copies in more than 30 languages.

The Stieg Larsson Foundation, which manages his estate, is controlled by his brother Joakim and father Erland.