Design concept, not the live site
Life stories, recorded and written
From £250. Nothing happens until you are sure.
Amanda Yaffe-Parker records relaxed conversations with somebody about their life, then writes them into a life story the family keeps, in their own voice.
Colchester, Essex, and across the UK. Lives within living memory, told in conversation. Not family-tree research.
Said, written, kept
Nobody talks in finished paragraphs. People pause, double back, laugh, say “you know”. Amanda keeps the voice and loses the clutter, so the page still sounds like the person who said it.
As it was said
Well, I started on the factory floor at, what, sixteen? Sweeping metal shavings, for four pounds a week, you know. Four pounds. And thirty-eight years later, they gave me a clock. And a cup of tea! In the same building, mind. In between there was, well, a wife, three children, a strike I still have opinions about, oh, I do. 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.
Highlighted: the pauses and asides that the writing leaves out
As it is written
A life, in their own words
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.
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And kept
A book that sits on a shelf for fifty years and gets handed down.
The written passage is the sample on Amanda's site, written to show the style. The spoken version is invented for this design to show the difference. Neither is a real client and nothing here is a recording. No sound plays.
How it works
Amanda handles the whole process, gently, from the first phone call to the moment it's yours to keep.
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.
She shapes those conversations into a properly written life story, keeping the person's own voice throughout. She can also work from recordings, photographs, letters and half-finished journals. You see a full draft first.
A professionally produced hardback, the original recordings, or a digital copy.
Which of these is you?
And some come for neither: to tell their own story, or to do it themselves with the free questions and guides.
A landmark birthday, an anniversary, a retirement after forty years, or a grandchild who has just arrived.
A parent growing more frail, a diagnosis that has shortened the timeline, or memory beginning to fade.
For the story that was not written down in time, built from letters, photographs and the people who remember them.
Want to tell your own story instead, in your own words? This is for you too.
Your own storyOr 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.
Start with the questionsVoices through time
The people Amanda talks to grew up with these machines in the house, or in the room at work. The equipment has changed beyond recognition. What is worth keeping has not.
The ribbon microphone, the BBC's studio voice.
Drawn after the STC 4038, designed with BBC Research.The reel-to-reel in the front room, seven-inch spools and a tape counter.
Drawn after the Ferrograph, made in Britain.The compact cassette, and a recorder you could carry.
Drawn after the Philips EL 3300.The phone in your pocket, face down on a folded tea towel.
Good enough. You do not need to buy anything.The equipment matters far less than people expect.
Free guide
What to record on, where to sit, how long to go for, how to ask, and what to do with the file afterwards.
Read the guide
The person on the other chair
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, trained as a Samaritans listener, and 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.
“Nearly every person I speak to begins by telling me that there is nothing to tell. Not one of them has been right yet.”
AmandaWhat you get
Not a printout in a ring binder. Something that sits on a shelf for fifty years and gets handed down.
Amanda conducts every conversation herself, from the first call to the finished book, in their own voice. The exact price depends on how many conversations the story needs, worked out together on a call.
For a project that needs something beyond the usual shape.
For the rest of the family.
What you give on the day is the voucher, and they decide afterwards what it becomes.
Questions to go through together, in your own time. Not on sale yet.
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.
You see a full draft before anything is printed. Nothing can be bought on this website: everything starts with a message to Amanda.
Questions, guides and practical help
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.
Before you begin
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.
The Memory Kit is built for exactly this, a set of questions to go through at your own pace, but it isn't quite ready yet. If time is genuinely short, please just message Amanda directly.
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.
Start a conversation
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.
If time is short, message Amanda on WhatsApp. She will reply as soon as she can.
