Colchester. A bonfire in the street, and Dad's shoulders to see it from.
An example life, made up to show what a book can hold. Not a client.
Amanda knows what to ask, leaves room for the things that come back a week later, and writes it all into a life story that still sounds like them. A series of relaxed, recorded conversations, at their pace, written up as a book the family keeps, from where it starts to everything after.
From £250. Nothing happens until you are sure.
Amanda records every conversation herself and writes every story herself, from Colchester, for families across the UK.
Lives within living memory, told in conversation and written down. Not family-tree or ancestry research.
Archive photographs, 1953 to 1969. Geoff Charles, National Library of Wales (CC0); Anefo, Nationaal Archief (CC0). Credits
Relaxed, recorded conversations about somebody's life, written up properly into a story the family keeps.
1. VE Day bonfire in a London street, 1945 (Imperial War Museums HU 36292, public domain); 2. Milk break at a county council school, Baldock, 1944 (Ministry of Information, Imperial War Museums D 20552, public domain); 3. A rock and roll dance contest, Amsterdam, 1957 (Herbert Behrens / Anefo, Nationaal Archief, CC0); 4. A dance school evening, The Hague, 1950 (Harry Pot / Anefo, Nationaal Archief, CC0); 5. A family with their new television, 1965 (Joost Evers / Anefo, Nationaal Archief, CC0). All via Wikimedia Commons.
Within living memory Told in conversation Not family-tree research
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.
Stock in hand. What a family already has, and what Amanda can work from.
Amanda handles the whole process, gently, from the first phone call to the moment it is yours to keep.
Tell Amanda a little about who the story is for. The first conversation is about whether this feels right at all. Nothing gets recorded until they have agreed to it.
A series of relaxed, recorded conversations, at their pace. Nothing has to be ready in advance, and the things that come back a week later go in too.
She shapes those conversations into chapters, keeping the person's own voice throughout. You see a full draft before anything is printed.
A hardback, a digital copy, the edited recordings, or a mix. The shape is agreed with you on the first call, and the price follows from it.
Amanda writes the conversations into chapters, in the order the life was lived, each with its own years. Here is one example life, made up to show what a book can hold. Choose a chapter to see how it opens and a clue from its time.
Chapter 1 Illustrative
1937 to 1945
“I was born in the back bedroom of a terraced house off the High Street. When the war ended the whole street built a bonfire, and Dad lifted me on to his shoulders to see it.”
Where A terrace off the High Street
In the book Chapter 1 opens on page 1.
No. 14,206One penny
The Evening Kestrel
Tuesday 8 May 1945
Victory in Europe
Today is VE Day. A holiday for the whole country.
Bonfires were lit in streets all over the country.
Chapter 2 Illustrative
1945 to 1953
“The prefabs went up behind the school after the war. We thought the families in them were rich, because they had a fridge.”
Where The school, north of the river
In the book Chapter 2 opens on page 12.
No. 16,690Coronation edition
The Evening Kestrel
Tuesday 2 June 1953
The Queen is crowned
Westminster Abbey this morning. And news that Everest has been climbed.
The Queen on the palace balcony after the Coronation.
Chapter 3 Illustrative
1953 to 1958
“I started on the factory floor at sixteen, sweeping metal shavings for four pounds a week.”
Where The Works, by the Hythe
In the book Chapter 3 opens on page 24.
Chapter 4 Illustrative
1958 to 1962
“She turned me down twice at the dance hall. The third time I asked her to the pictures instead, and she said yes.”
Where The dance hall in town
In the book Chapter 4 opens on page 35.
1959
The Starlight Rooms
Dancing every Saturday
Vic Harland and his Orchestra. Eight till half past eleven.
Admission 2/6
Chapter 5 Illustrative
1963 to 1970
“We got the keys to our house on the new estate in the summer of 1966. Half the road watched the final in our front room, before we had curtains up.”
Where The new estate, Shrub End
In the book Chapter 5 opens on page 47.
No. 20,710Sports final
The Evening Kestrel
Saturday 30 July 1966
England win the World Cup
Four goals to two against West Germany at Wembley, after extra time.
Chapter 6 Illustrative
1971 to 1974
“My mother never trusted the new pennies. A year later we were out on strike at the Works, and I still have opinions about it.”
Where The Works, by the Hythe
In the book Chapter 6 opens on page 58.
No. 22,0903p
The Evening Kestrel
Monday 15 February 1971
New money day
From today a pound is 100 new pence.
The new halfpenny.
Chapter 7 Illustrative
1975 to 1991
“Thirty-eight years after I started, they gave me a clock and a cup of tea in the same building.”
Where The Works, by the Hythe
In the book Chapter 7 opens on page 70.
Chapter 8 Illustrative
Today
“Nobody had ever asked me to say any of that out loud before, let alone write it down.”
Where Wivenhoe, today
In the book Chapter 8 opens on page 82.
A life story places a person in their time: the news on the day, the adverts in the paper, what people wore and where they lived. The pages below are recreated for the example life, to show the feel.
The Morning Imprint
Tuesday 8 May 1945Victory editionOne penny
It's VE Day
The war in Europe is over. Today is a holiday.
Germany has surrendered. The Prime Minister will speak to the nation this afternoon, and today and tomorrow are holidays.
Bonfires and bunting in every street
Recreated for this design. The event and date are real; the newspaper is invented.
1937
Ashlow's
Malted Cocoa
A cup at bedtime
and sleep like a top
In the red tin, from your grocer
Invented brand, set for this design.
1958
The Starlight Rooms
Every Saturday
Saturday dancing, eight till eleven
Vic Harland and his Orchestra
Ladies two shillings, gentlemen half a crown
Invented brand, set for this design.
The Morning Imprint
Tuesday 2 June 1953Coronation editionOne penny
The Queen is crowned
Westminster Abbey, and the news that Everest has been climbed
Queen Elizabeth II is crowned in Westminster Abbey. News reached London this morning that Everest has been climbed.
Crowds round every television set
Recreated for this design. The event and date are real; the newspaper is invented.
The Morning Imprint
Saturday 30 July 1966Sports finalOne penny
England win the World Cup
4-2 against West Germany at Wembley, after extra time
England beat West Germany 4-2 at Wembley after extra time. Geoff Hurst scored three.
Celebrations go on into the night
Recreated for this design. The event and date are real; the newspaper is invented.
Front pages and adverts are recreated for this site: the events and dates are real, the newspaper names and brands are invented. Photographs are public domain or CC0 archive images, credited under each one. All the period pages.
A life happens in real streets. This is a real Ordnance Survey map of Colchester, printed in the 1930s, the kind that sat in a car door pocket. The numbered pins follow the example life across it. Press a pin to open its chapter.
Places in the book
Illustrative. Dennis is made up for this site. In a real book the map is the one from the person's own town and years.
i
for an occasion already circled
A landmark birthday, an anniversary, a retirement after forty years, or a grandchild who has just arrived.
ii
because something has changed
A parent growing more frail, a diagnosis that has shortened the timeline, or memory beginning to fade.
iii
piecing it together from what is left
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 story.
Or 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 questions.
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.
Who said it first?
What did it smell like on a Sunday?
What was your first job, and what did it pay?
Which neighbour would you still recognise in the street?
What was the street like, and who else lived on it?
A life, in their own words
Chapter One
Where it starts
1937 to 1945
I was born in the back bedroom of a terraced house off the High Street, in the winter of 1937, and Mum said the coal ran out the same week. The street was all one family, more or less.
1
The Life StoryFrom £250The exact price depends on how many conversations you want, agreed with Amanda on a call.
What you end up with
Not a printout in a ring binder. Something that sits on a shelf for fifty years and gets handed down.
What you end up with is worked out with you. A hardback, a digital copy, the edited recordings, extra copies for the family: we agree the shape on the first call, and the price follows from it.
Nothing happens until you are sure. You see a full draft before anything is printed. About your book
Nearly everybody I sit with begins by telling me that there is nothing to tell. Not one of them has been right yet.
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.
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, with no need to decide about a written-up book straight away, 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.
Colophon. Set in Baskervville (a Baskerville revival) and EB Garamond, with Courier Prime for the typed line and Archivo Narrow for the map and the headlines. The photographs are real archive prints, credited where they appear; the small drawings in How it works are pencil cuts.
Every photograph on this page is a real archive photograph, toned and printed for this site. None is AI-generated.
