Jean A Stockdale didn’t believe herself to be a great or special individual, but that didn’t stop her wanting people to know about the fascinating story that lies in her family history. My Spring is an unusual memoir contrasting the lives of Royals with the ordinary working class Sheffield family she is descended from.

My Spring offers a unique insight into the parallel life stories of an extraordinary Royal Lady and an ordinary woman, from the glory days of the Empire up to the 1960s. Both women experience the turmoil and sadness of the First World War, marriage in 1923, the fear of the Second World War and the birth of a daughter, one of whom was destined to be Queen and the other who was to become the author’s mother.

Originating from Stockdale’s own personal poetry on the subject, My Spring connects the underlying story behind each poem. The result is a captivating view into her past through the unusual lens of her own northern family background, contrasted with the history of the Royal Family.

“I’m just an ordinary woman with an ordinary family, not interesting enough for people to know about me. But I want people to know about me. I’m not a professional writer or a poet, but inside of me there lies a story. And somewhere along the way, there’s fascination, there’s joy, there’s deceipt and guilt... and a little bit of magic!”

Jean A Stockdale was born and brought up in Sheffield and from around the age of eight she began keeping a diary and writing poetry. She has always loved the Royal Family and is fascinated by the real life stories behind some of its members and how closely one or two of them have mirrored her own past.