Life stories, recorded and written by Amanda Yaffe-Parker
One life, grown year on year, kept for the people in its shade.
Amanda records conversations and writes a life story the family keeps. Not ancestry research.
Start a conversationAmanda sits down with somebody for relaxed, recorded conversations about their life, then writes it all into a life story the family keeps, in their own voice. She knows what to ask, and leaves room for the things that come back a week later.
Not ancestry or family tree research. One life, within living memory, told by the person who lived it.
From £250. Nothing happens until you are sure.
Key to Plate I
Read one life, from the roots to the crown.
Roots are where a life starts, the trunk is the long middle of it, the boughs are the turns it took, and the shade at the foot is the family the book is handed to. Nobody's life is one person's family tree: it is one tree.
Illustrative life, a design demonstration, not a client. Built around the sample passage further down this page.
- 1941The roots
The first ring, the one nobody remembers for themselves. Born in a terraced house; his mother told this part for him.
The terrace
- 1947The hard winter
Snow higher than the back gate, and his father digging a path to the outside toilet before work.
The back gate of the terrace
- 1953The Coronation
Watched on a neighbour's television with what felt like the whole street in one front room.
Two doors down, the only set in the street
- 1957The factory floor
Sixteen, and on the factory floor sweeping metal shavings for four pounds a week.
The Works, by the river
- 1963Married
He can still tell you what was on the table at the do afterwards, in order.
The church hall
- 1965The first child
The first of three children. He walked to the hospital and ran back.
The hospital, up past the station
- 1972The strike
Weeks without a wage, and opinions about it he still holds.
The gate of the Works
- 1995A clock and a cup of tea
Thirty-eight years on, a clock and a cup of tea in the same building where he started.
The Works, the same building
- 2001A first grandchild
A first grandchild, who will one day be the one who asks.
The new estate, where his son lives
- 2026In its shade
Somebody asked, and he said there was nothing to tell. There was. The book goes to his three children and their children: the people sitting in the shade of it.
The bungalow, in his own chair
The factory floor
Sixteen, and on the factory floor sweeping metal shavings for four pounds a week.
The Works, by the river
Wide rings are good years, narrow ones are hard years. Every year is in the wood, whether or not anybody has asked about it yet.
Illustrative map drawn for this concept, in the manner of a 1940s Ordnance Survey one-inch sheet. Not a real place.
About Capture & Keep
A life-story service, and a practical resource, run by one person.
Capture & Keep is 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.
“Nearly every person I speak to begins by telling me that there is nothing to tell. Not one of them has been right yet.”
Amanda
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.
Fig. 1, the roots
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.
Fig. 2, the boughs
Amanda writes
She shapes those conversations into a properly written life story, keeping the person's own voice throughout. You see a full draft before anything is printed.
Fig. 3, the acorn
Your book is made
The finished story becomes what you want to keep: a hardback, the edited recordings, a digital copy. The shape is agreed with Amanda on the first call.
Which of these is you?
Most people come to this for one of three reasons.
A gift, for an occasion
For an occasion already circled
- 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
While there is still time
Because something has changed
- A parent or grandparent, ageing now
- A diagnosis has changed things
- Memory beginning to change
- They are moving into care
After they have gone
Piecing it together from what is left
- 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
Or your own story
In your own words
Want to tell your own story instead? This is for you too.
Your own story
Or do it yourself. The questions and guides are free.
They are the same ones Amanda uses: the hundred questions, the recording guide, what to do with a box of photographs or an unfinished journal. If you try it and would rather hand it over, you will know where she is.
their own words
The cover, as drawn for this concept.
What you end up with
A real book, made properly. The acorn, not the tree.
Not a printout in a ring binder. Something that sits on a shelf for fifty years and gets handed down. What it is made of is worked out with you on the first call, and the price follows from it.
- A hardbackagreed on the call
- The edited recordings, so you keep the voice as well as the wordsagreed on the call
- A digital copyagreed on the call
- Extra copies for the familyfrom £95 each
- A full draft to read before anything is printedalways
What it reads like
The writing is the part nobody can show you in a photograph, so here is a piece of it.
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.
Pricing
Three ways to work together.
No hourly rates, and nothing added later. Every story is finalised by Amanda, whichever of these you choose.
- Coming soon
The Memory Kit
£30 once it is available
Answer a set of questions together, in your own time, then send the recording to Amanda. Not on sale yet.
Find out more The Life Story
From £250
Amanda conducts every conversation herself, from the first call to the finished book, in their own voice. The price depends on the number of conversations, worked out together on a call.
Talk to AmandaBespoke
Worked out on the call
For a project that needs something beyond the usual shape: several people, an unusual format, or a deadline.
Find out more
Most families share the cost between them, so do say how many of you there are. See full pricing
About Amanda
“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 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.
- Studied psychology
- Samaritans trained listener
- Years as a volunteer befriender
- 15 years managing projects
Before you begin
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, 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.
Start a conversation
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.
If time is short, message Amanda on WhatsApp, 07843 171332. She will reply as soon as she can.
Pl. I, the shade. The foot of the great oak, where the people it is handed to sit. Etching after J. G. Strutt, 1823. Wellcome Collection, CC BY 4.0.