THIS IS YOUR LIFE

What do you want to do when you grow up? A question we were probably all asked as a child, prompting an answer usually related to a job - we wanted to be king/queen, an astronaut, a top sportsperson, a pop star… largely unachievable goals for most of us! 

Now that we are older, we rarely look back and review what we’ve done with our lives so far - what we’ve achieved and how, if we disappeared tomorrow, we’d be remembered. 

Basic facts can be discovered - we’ll all have birth and death certificates; we may also appear on Census documents revealing where we lived at certain points in our lives. But what of the stories behind them? 

The geographical journey from where we were born to where we end up may be traceable but not always why we moved, who we lived with, what we did to earn money, and what hurdles we had to overcome along the way.

As a journalist I’ve talked to many people about their lives and marvelled at what they’ve achieved - things they’ve done and experiences they’ve had that may seem quite unremarkable to them, but extraordinary to me.  Through talking to people about their lives and writing articles about them, I’ve helped others understand them a bit better.

So why not open this service up to everyone?  You don’t have to be famous to be interesting. And whatever job you ended up doing, why not tell your own story your way, rather than rely on the accuracy of other people’s memories or opinions of you?

I started This Is Your Life to help people record elements of their life for posterity - for their nearest and dearest.  All you need is to draw up a family tree (going back just one generation) which includes ‘significant others’ as well as actual relatives, then dig out photographs from different stages of your life that mean something – either because of who is in them or because they were taken at a time/place that was special.

Once you have shared this with me, we can chat through how best to tell your story - either as a book with photographs, or as an audio or video interview. It all depends on whether you’re aiming for a complete story of your life or merely a chapter you want to remember while it’s clear in your mind. I only charge for my time once we begin the story.

We all have stories to tell.  Yours doesn’t need to be dramatic or ground-breaking, but it will mean a great deal to those who love you and ultimately you leave behind.  So why not get in touch?