Birthday Book
Every milestone is worth marking
We make the book for
10th12th13th16th18th21st30th40th50th60th70th80th90th100th
Retiring from work? The Leaving Book is made for that, by colleagues.
Ten to thirteen
10th12th13th
Grandparents, aunts and uncles, godparents, family friends, their own closest friends: the people who have watched them grow up, saying what they see in them. Photographs from every year so far. The kind of things adults rarely say to a young person’s face, put in a book that is entirely theirs.
The years ahead will bring plenty of opinions about who they should be. This one comes from the people who know them.
Sixteen, eighteen, twenty-one
16th18th21st
At the edge of adult life, a book of who they have been to the people who raised them, taught them and grew up alongside them. Family stories, photographs from every year, and plain words from the friends who know them now. Something to take with them into whatever comes next.
Thirty, forty, fifty
We rarely tell the people we love, properly and in writing, why they matter. A milestone birthday is a good reason to. Photographs from every chapter so far, stories from the friends who were there, and the plain words of family, partners and colleagues about what this person means to them.
Sixty and seventy
For mum’s seventieth or dad’s sixtieth: their life so far, told by the people who have shared it. Brothers and sisters, old school friends, neighbours of thirty years, the grandchildren. Photographs that mark each chapter, the stories the family tells at every gathering, and the things everyone means and seldom says. Gathered properly, bound properly, and yours to give.
Eighty, ninety, a hundred
A life told by the people who have known them across it: children and grandchildren, friends from every stage, the ones who still remember the early years. Photographs from every decade, the stories the family has told for years, and the things people would say if asked. Anyone who would rather speak than type can record their message, and if someone won’t go near a link, you can add their message for them.
Everyone adds as they think of things. You make the book when it’s ready.
Everything people send arrives on the board, an online page where messages and photographs gather. It is private unless you choose to open it: people can still write, and only you read what arrives. When enough has gathered, you make the book. Ordering it doesn’t close the board, which stays online for 10 years, so anything that comes in late can go into another copy.
The board is free to set up. You pay for the book when you order it, priced by its number of pages.
What we do, so they don’t have to
Structure, design, guidance, prompts: that’s our job. Knowing the person: that’s yours. The book reads as if everyone knew exactly what to say. We helped them know.
Help with the speech
If you’re the one standing up to say a few words, we can help you get started. Using only the contributions in the book, we’ll pull together the stories, memories and lines worth including into a first draft. You’ll see whose words each part came from, and you can change as much or as little as you like.
What is inside
- Chapters of their life
- The book starts with suggested chapters, such as Childhood, School years and Family life. You rename them, add your own and take out any that don’t fit, then decide where each message and photograph goes.
- Every message, with its name
- Each person’s words appear with their name. A long letter gets the room it needs; a short line sits with others.
- Their photographs
- Photographs from every year, sent by everyone. A single photograph can have a page of its own.
- A front made for the birthday
- The cover carries the big number and the day they were born, with a photograph you choose from everything people sent.