The book
A hardcover memory book, printed one at a time
The board keeps growing. The book gives the family something to hold.
What is inside
- Chapters
- The book comes with chapters to start from: the parts of a life for a birthday or a memorial, the best moments and funny stories for a leaving book. You rename, add or remove any of them.
- Everyone’s words
- Letters, short notes and stories, each with the name of the person who wrote it. Someone who would rather talk can speak a message instead, and it prints as written words.
- Photographs
- Each person can add up to 30, and they are laid out on the page alongside the words. You choose the crops, the layouts, and which photograph gets a page of its own.
Where a new book starts
A 70th birthday book
Childhood · School years · Early adulthood · Career · Family life · Recent years · Now
A leaving book, for example Ruth’s
About Ruth · Best moments · Funny stories · Team memories · What we'll miss · Where they're going next
A memory book in memory of someone
Childhood · School · University · Work · Friends · Family life · Hobbies and passions · Travels · Later years
These are suggestions, ticked for you at setup. You rename them, add your own, take any away, and move messages between them as they arrive.
Inside a chapter, photographs are grouped onto pages, and messages are laid out so each one keeps the name of whoever wrote it. A long letter is given room to be read. A single photograph worth the space gets a page of its own.
The book drafts itself first. After that it is yours: move anything, take anything out, and see exactly what will be printed before you order.
What it holds
A life told in the voices of the people who shared it. The moments that mattered. The stories everyone tells. The things people mean and rarely say.
What it asks of you
Very little writing of your own. One link does the asking, each person says their own part, and you shape what arrives into a book.
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.
How long it is
The shortest book we print is 40 pages, and the longest is 250.
There is no need to aim at a number. You gather what people send, and the book is however long it needs to be.
The object itself
A square hardcover book in two sizes, printed one at a time and posted to the address you give in the UK, Ireland, the US, Australia, Singapore, Canada, the UAE or Hong Kong.
21 cm 21 × 21 cm
29 cm 29 × 29 cm
A4 paper 21 × 29.7 cm
- Size
- 21 × 21 cm or 29 × 29 cm, square. You switch between them on the front of the book.
- Binding
- Hardcover, printed cover wrapped around the boards
- Paper
- 200gsm silk paper
- Photographs
- Prepared for print at 300 dpi where the original allows
- Cover
- Printed, with the name on the front, and on the spine from 46 pages
- Printed
- One at a time, when you order it
No photograph is turned away for being small. When you crop one, the editor stops where it would start to look soft and tells you so. You can go further if you choose.
Where to start
Making a book begins with the person it is about and the people you want to hear from. Everything else follows from that.