05 · Now
Every life has chapters. Amanda writes them down.
Every story is worth keeping, before it is lost.
Amanda Yaffe-Parker sits down with somebody, records relaxed conversations about the life they remember, and writes it into a book the family keeps, in their own voice.
Not family trees, and not ancestry research. One person's life, within living memory, told by the person who lived it.
Amanda Yaffe-ParkerColchester, Essex. A trained Samaritans listener and, for years, a volunteer befriender to older men and women.
From £250. Nothing happens until you are sure.
The four decades on this shelf follow an illustrative life, a design demonstration and not a client. The questions that open each chapter are real: they come from Amanda's hundred.
Chapter one · The 1940s
Question 4 of the hundred
What did it smell like on a Sunday?
1943
Dundee
Born above a shop, the youngest of four.
Illustrative life, a design demonstration, not a client.
How it works
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.
Please noteYou see a full draft before anything is printed, and nothing happens until you are sure.
What happensIn this order
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 what you want to keep: a hardback, the original recordings, or a digital copy. The shape is agreed with you on the first call.
Most of it happens in person, across Essex and Suffolk.How it works, in full
Chapter two · The 1950s
Question 16 of the hundred
What was the name of your first school, and who took you on the first day?
1955
Newcastle
A new school at twelve, and an accent nobody could follow.
Illustrative life, a design demonstration, not a client.
Which of these is you?
Most people come to this for one of three reasons.
-
For an occasion already circled
A gift
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 for them to grow into
-
Because something has changed
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
-
Piecing it together from what is left
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 book
- What family and friends remember, gathered properly
- A book to mark the anniversary of a loss
- The questions you wish you had asked
Your own story
Want to tell your own story instead, in your own words? This is for you too.
Telling your own storyOr do it yourselves
The questions and guides are free, and they are the same ones Amanda uses.
Start with the questionsChapter three · The 1960s
Question 28 of the hundred
What was your first job, and what did it pay?
1964
Sheffield
A typing pool, a first wage packet, and a record player paid for weekly.
Illustrative life, a design demonstration, not a client.
What you end up with
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. The writing is the part nobody can show you in a photograph, so take one off the shelf.
Illustrative covers, drawn for this design. Covers are worked out with each family.
A gift, for an occasionSample passage
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.
While there is still timeSample passage
Some days I could not tell you what I had for breakfast, but I can still see the ballroom at the Locarno exactly as it was, and I can still hum the tune the band was playing the night your grandfather asked me to dance. Hold on to that one. That is the one that matters.
After they have goneSample passage
He never once talked about the war in forty years, so most of what is in this book came from a shoebox of letters his sister had kept, and three photographs nobody could place until an old friend of his rang up out of the blue and named every face in them. It is not everything. But it is far more than we had, and more than we thought we would ever get back.
Chapter four · The 1970s
Question 49 of the hundred
What was the first home the two of you had?
1974
Northampton
A house with a garden, two children, and a kitchen she chose herself.
Illustrative life, a design demonstration, not a client.
Some of it is already in the house.
Amanda also works from what a family already has: the recordings, photographs, letters and half-finished journals sitting in drawers. Most families are further along than they think.
- 1Recordings
- 2Photographs
- 3Letters
- 4Half-finished journals
After they have gone, it can still be done.
Letters, photographs and fragments woven into one book, and what family and friends remember, gathered properly.
How this can still workPhotograph: a licensed stand-in, not a clientCapture & Keep
Prices, plainly.
No hourly rates, and nothing added later.
- No. 1The Life StoryFrom £250Amanda conducts every conversation herself, from the first call to the finished book. The exact price depends on how many conversations, agreed with her on a call.
- No. 2BespokeOn a callFor a story that does not fit the usual shape: several people, an unusual format, or a deadline.
- No. 3Gift voucherYou sayNo fixed voucher price: tell Amanda what you have in mind and she will work it out with you.
- No. 4Extra copiesFrom £95Each, whenever the family wants them.
- No. 5The Memory Kit Coming soon£30A set of questions to go through together, in your own time. Not on sale yet.
Nothing can be bought on this website. Everything starts with a message to Amanda, and nothing happens until you are sure. Most families share the cost, so do say how many of you there are.
See full pricingPrices as on the live siteCapture & Keep
Chapter five · Now
Question 99 of the hundred
What should I ask you next time?
2026
Colchester
Near the grandchildren, and somebody finally asks.
Illustrative life, a design demonstration, not a client.
The person who writes it
The skills that matter most here were not learned in a boardroom.
Amanda spent fifteen years in some of the UK's top advertising and marketing agencies, managing projects for big corporate clients. She studied psychology, trained as a Samaritans listener, and spent years as a volunteer befriender to older men and women, many of whose stories have stayed with her ever since.
- StudiedPsychology
- TrainedSamaritans listener
- CounsellingLevel 4 Accredited Counselling training
- Years spentVolunteer befriending, older men and women
- Fifteen yearsManaging projects in agencies
- Every timeShe records and writes every story herself
i
An illustrative life
Contents
What a finished book of the life on this page might hold. Invented to show the idea, not a client.
- 1DundeeBorn above a shop, the youngest of four1943
- 2NewcastleA new school, and an accent nobody could follow1955
- 3SheffieldA typing pool and a first wage packet1964
- 4NorthamptonA house with a garden, and a kitchen she chose1974
- 5ColchesterNear the grandchildren, and somebody finally asks2026
The route is a picture of one invented life, not a coverage map. Amanda works in person across Essex and Suffolk, and further by arrangement.
ii
Questions, guides and practical help
Most of what Amanda knows is on this site, free.
Plenty of families do this themselves, and they should. If you try it and would rather hand it over, you will know where she is.
Start a conversation
Let's keep their story, together.
“Nearly every person I speak to begins by telling me that there is nothing to tell. Not one of them has been right yet.” Tell Amanda a little about who the story is for. 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.