The books
One life. A book for every reader.
You tell your story once, by voice. From those conversations come the books your family will actually read: the memoir for you, a novel for the readers, a young adult edition for the teenagers, and a picture book for the little ones.
One memory, four books
The same morning at the kitchen table, written four ways.
A woman remembers reading the newspaper to her father when she was six, because his eyes had gone. Here is that one memory as each book would tell it.
From the memoir · For you, your children, and anyone who knew you
I used to read the paper to my father at the table, the racing results too, because his eyes had gone. I was six. My mother would say, the professor is in session, and nobody was allowed to talk.
I did not know half the words. I read them anyway, and he never once corrected me. I think now that he knew most of it already. He just liked to hear me.
From the novel · For the readers in the family who want a story
The kitchen smelled of coal and wet wool. Eleanor climbed onto the chair with the newspaper spread wider than her arms, and her father turned his good ear toward her.
"The two-thirty at Kempton," he said. She found it with her finger. "Silver Lady. Seven to two." He nodded as though she had told him something important. Across the room her mother dried a plate and said, to nobody, "The professor is in session."
At the back of the book: the smell of the kitchen and the name of the horse were imagined. The reading, the racing results and her mother's words are as Eleanor told them.
From the young adult edition · For the teenagers in the family
Eleanor was six the year her father's eyes started to go, which is how she got the most important job in the house.
Every morning: the paper, the whole thing, out loud. Even the racing. Especially the racing.
From the picture book · For the grandchildren, read aloud at bedtime
Every morning, Grandma Eleanor read the newspaper to her papa.
She was only six. Some words were big. Some words were VERY big.
She read them all anyway.
Example passages written for this page from one sample story.
The Whole Family
Five editions. Five hardcovers. One for every household.
The Whole Family package is your life written for every reader, from the grandparents' generation to the grandchildren's.
01 · For you, your children, and anyone who knew you
The memoir
Your life in your own words, exactly as you told it. Nothing is invented. Your sayings, your turns of phrase and the way you tell a joke stay as they were. Stories you heard from others are marked as family stories.
- Written only from what you said
- Your own voice, first person
- Hearsay marked as hearsay
- The book most people start with
02 · For the readers in the family who want a story
The historical novel
Your true story written as a novel, with scenes, weather and dialogue. The facts stay true: the people, the places, what happened and when. What had to be imagined to make a scene is listed at the back, so nobody mistakes it for the record.
- Built on the true facts
- Scenes and dialogue
- A list at the back of what was imagined
- Reads like the novels on your shelf
03 · For the teenagers in the family
The young adult edition
The same life, written for readers of thirteen and up. Shorter chapters, a faster pace, and honest about the hard years, because teenagers can tell when they are being protected from something.
- Shorter, faster chapters
- Honest about the hard parts
- Written to be read on a phone or on paper
- About half the length of the memoir
04 · For the grandchildren, read aloud at bedtime
The children's picture book
One part of your life, retold as a picture book for small children, with gentle illustrations. Usually the story the grandchildren already ask for. The kind of book that gets read until the spine goes.
- About 32 illustrated pages
- One story from your life, told simply
- Large type for reading aloud
- Illustrated in a soft watercolour style
05 · For friends, neighbours and the wider family
The gift edition
A short, beautiful book of your best stories, for the people who knew you a little and would love to know you more. Old friends, the neighbours, the people at church, the cousins.
- Your best stories, in your words
- Short enough to read in an afternoon
- Printed in a smaller format
- Easy to give at a birthday or a gathering
More kinds of book
Not every story is a life story.
The same listener, the same method, for the stories that are not a whole life: a family's history, a letter for later, a company, a child's own made-up tales.
For everyone who comes after
The family history
The story of the family, two generations back and more, told through the people rather than the dates. Family stories that reach further than any record go in, marked as family stories.
Read the guide
For one person, on a day you choose
Letters for later
Letters sealed for one person and opened on a date you choose: a wedding day, an eighteenth birthday, the birth of a first child, or after you are gone. Spoken by you, kept in your voice, and printed if you like.
Read the guide
For the people who built it, and the ones who will run it next
The company history
The story of a business, told by the founder and the people who were there, each interviewed on their own. The disagreements are kept. The week it nearly closed is in it.
Read the guide
For a child, starring the child
A child's own story
The stories your child makes up, recorded at bedtime and kept in their exact words, made into a picture book with their own drawings as the pictures.
Read the guideThe printed book
Made to be kept, and passed down.
A sewn, cloth-bound hardcover, with your photographs and letters placed in the pages next to the stories they belong to. Each copy arrives in a rigid gift box.
- Sewn, cloth-bound hardcover
- Photographs and letters placed in the pages
- A rigid gift box for each copy
- Extra copies from $69
Tellforth
Choose one book, or all of them.
Every book comes from the same conversations, so you never have to tell a story twice.
Updated · Plain-text version of this page: /books.md