After I was born my father went to register my birth; he recorded the name my parents had chosen for me, as he had my brothers' before me. When my elderly grandmother was informed that she finally had a grand-daughter she was overjoyed. She subsequently arrived and, holding me in her arms for the first time, announced that she would have liked me to have been given one of her names. Consequently, at my christening my grandmother stood as my godmother and I was given the baptismal name of Lucy. She died one year later. Throughout my childhood I cherished the special bond that I felt had existed between my grandmother and myself. She was an extraordinary woman and was my inspiration for the character Ursula. Whilst the narrative and the characters in A Little Blue Jacket are a product of my imagination, the essence of the main events that occur in it happened to my grandmother.