Jack Sheffield was born in 1945 and grew up in the tough environment of Gipton Estate in north-east Leeds. His first job was ‘pitch boy’, carrying buckets of boiling bitumen up a ladder to repair roofs.

In the 60s he trained to be a teacher at the St John’s College, York, and spent his summers as a Corona Pop Man.

In the early 70s, he was a teacher in Keighley in West Yorkshire, during which time he earned a reputation as a hard-tackling wing-forward for Wharfedale RUFC.

In the late 70s and 80s, Jack was headteacher of two schools in North Yorkshire before becoming Senior Lecturer in Primary Education at Bretton Hall College of the University of Leeds. It was at this time he began to record his many amusing stories of village life.

Jack shares his time between York and Hampshire.