Every one of these is still in one person’s head.
Not one of them has been written down.
From £250 · nothing happens until you are sure
Every story is worth keeping, before it is lost.
Capture & Keep is a UK life-story service and a practical resource, run by Amanda Yaffe-Parker. She is based in Colchester in Essex and works with people and families across the UK.
Amanda can do the whole thing with you: relaxed, recorded conversations about somebody’s life, written up properly into a story the family keeps. She also works from what a family already has, the recordings, photographs, letters and half-finished journals sitting in drawers.
The rest of this site is the same work, given away. Questions to ask, guides to recording and keeping, and practical advice for anybody doing it themselves: what to ask, how to keep a conversation going, and what to make of the memories and family history already in the house.
Amanda studied psychology, trained as a Samaritans listener and spent years as a volunteer befriender to older men and women. That is why this leans where it does, towards conversations with older relatives, memories that do not arrive neatly or in order, and the stories sitting behind a family tree.
- About AmandaWho she is
- What Amanda doesHow it works
- Questions to askA hundred of them, free
- GuidesPractical advice
There is no interview to prepare for.
Amanda handles the whole process, gently, from the first phone call to the moment it is yours to keep.
We talk
Amanda spends time with you over a series of relaxed, recorded conversations, at their pace and in their own chair. Nothing has to be ready in advance, and the things that come back a week later go in too.
Amanda writes
She shapes those conversations into a properly written life story, keeping the person’s own voice throughout. You see a full draft first.
Your book is made
The finished story becomes exactly what you want to keep: a professionally produced hardback, the original recordings, or a digital copy.
Most people come to this for one of three reasons.
A gift, for an occasion
A landmark birthday, an anniversary, a retirement after forty years, or a grandchild who has just arrived.
- His 80th is in a few weeks
- Their ruby or golden anniversary
- Retiring after a working life
- A new grandchild, and a story to grow into
While there is still time
A parent growing more frail, a diagnosis that has shortened the timeline, or memory beginning to fade.
- A parent or grandparent, ageing now
- A diagnosis has changed things
- Memory beginning to change
- They are moving into care
After they have gone
For the story that was not written down in time, built from letters, photographs and the people who remember them.
- Letters, photos and fragments, woven into one
- What family and friends remember, gathered
- A book to mark the anniversary of a loss
- The questions you wish you had asked
Want to tell your own story instead, in your own words? That is here too. And you may not want anybody to do it for you at all: the questions and guides are free, and they are the same ones Amanda uses.
A real book, made properly.
Not a printout in a ring binder. Something that sits on a shelf for fifty years and gets handed down.
- BindingCloth bound hardback, foil blocked title
- SizeA5 portrait, around ninety pages
- PaperHeavyweight uncoated cream, matte finish
- PhotographsYours, restored where needed and woven through
- CopiesAgreed with Amanda: a hardback, a digital copy, the edited recordings, or some combination
- Further copiesFrom £95 each, whenever the family wants them
I started on the factory floor at sixteen, sweeping metal shavings for four pounds a week, and thirty-eight years later they gave me a clock and a cup of tea in the same building. In between there was a wife, three children, a strike I still have opinions about, and more good men than bad ones. Nobody had ever asked me to say any of that out loud before, let alone write it down.
The skills that matter most here were not learned in a boardroom.
I have spent fifteen years in some of the UK’s top advertising and marketing agencies, managing projects for big corporate clients. But the thing I have been most passionate about throughout my career has always been the same: people’s stories, and how to tell them well.
I studied psychology early on and later trained in therapy, and that fascination with what makes people who they are led me to train as a Samaritans listener. I spent years as a voluntary befriender to elderly men and women, many of whose stories have stayed with me ever since.
As a busy mum myself, I know how precious family time is, and how daunting a project like this can feel. So my promise is simple: a professionally managed process, and a genuinely warm, patient pair of hands for the person who matters most.
Samaritans trained listener · 15 years managing projects
Three ways to work together, whatever this moment calls for.
No hourly rates, and nothing added later.
The Memory Kit
Answer a set of questions together, in your own time, then send the recording to Amanda. Decide about the write-up whenever you are ready.
The Life Story
Amanda conducts every conversation herself, from the first call to the finished book, in their own voice. Depends on the number of sessions, worked out together on a call.
Bespoke
For a project that needs something beyond the usual shape.
What you end up with is worked out with you: a hardback, a digital copy, the edited recordings so you keep the voice as well as the words, extra copies for the family. Amanda agrees the shape on the first call and the price follows from it. Most families share the cost between them, so do say how many of you there are and the practical side gets worked out with her. Every story is finalised by Amanda, whichever of these you choose.
Their words, kept forever.
The writing takes as long as it takes, and birthdays do not wait. So for Christmas, a big birthday or any day you have already got circled, what you give on the day is the voucher, and they decide afterwards whether that becomes the full Life Story now, or the Memory Kit once it is available.
- What it is worthWhatever you want to put in. There is no fixed voucher price, so tell Amanda what you have in mind
- What they openSomething to hand over on the day. Amanda arranges it with you, because nothing is bought on this website
- If they say noTalk to Amanda about it. Most people who say no at first are saying it is a fuss, not that they do not want it
Most of what Amanda knows is on this site, free.
Plenty of families do this themselves, and they should. The hundred questions, the recording guide, what to do with a box of photographs or an unfinished journal: it is all here, it costs nothing, and none of it needs Amanda. If you try it and would rather hand it over, you will know where she is.
The questions people actually ask.
What if they do not want to talk?
Nothing gets recorded until they have agreed to it. The first conversation is about whether this feels right at all, and if they would rather there were no recorder in the room for it, there will not be. Most people who are reluctant at the start are glad of it later on.
What if there is not much time?
The Memory Kit is built for exactly this, a set of questions to go through at your own pace, with no need to decide about a written-up book straight away, but it is not quite ready yet. If time is genuinely short, please just message Amanda directly.
What happens to the recordings?
They stay between Amanda and you, and nothing is shared beyond what goes into the book. Whether the edited recordings come to you as well is something you agree with her at the start.
What if my parent is in a care home, or their memory is patchy?
That is what “while there is still time” is for. Sessions are shorter or split across visits, and family are welcome to sit in. Some days work better than others, and that is alright.
Can more than one of us be involved?
Yes. Family members are welcome at sessions, and several of you can share the cost. Say how many of you there are and the practical side gets worked out with her.
Let’s keep their story, together.
Tell Amanda a little about who the story is for. There is no obligation, no pressure, and no salesperson at the end of it. Only her.
WhatsApp 07843 171332 · if time is short, message her. She will reply as soon as she can.