THE STORY KEEPERS LIFE STORY
AUDIO RECORDING - YOUR AUDIO MEMOIR
The Classic Story Keepers Life Story Recording
Your stories and recollections are expertly recorded and captured then beautifully edited into chapters to create a beautiful set of audio recordings - your Audio Memoir.
I use gentle prompts and questions to help you to recall and share your family stories, treasured memories, thoughts, feelings and recollections, so that your children, grandchildren and future generations can enjoy, cherish and feel pride in their family identity and likely as not, also hear long-forgotten stories.
But, it’s more than that. My storytellers tell me without fail just how enjoyable it is to be listened to, to recall and reflect on memories and to share their life stories in a safe and fun environment. For a storyteller to know that their stories are of real value to their friends and family is hugely comforting and the process of recall hugely validating and life-affirming.
The finished audio memoir will be sent to you on a Story Keepers USB stick in a gift box, and the files can then be enjoyed, copied and shared with family, friends, and carers both now and into the future.
“Alice is a wonderful, warm and caring and funny lady, who also excels at what she does.
I would fully recommend her to anyone and everyone”— Helene, 2020
Feel free to call 07903582474 or email me alice@thestorykeepers.co.uk to discuss your potential project, or fill in the contact form below with any questions you may have.
Prices and Packages
Our prices are based on the interview length and differ slightly for face-to-face and remote interviews.
Prices start at £550 for a two-hour fully edited Story Keepers interview.
The big question - how much time will we need?
If you are happy up to now, then the main question (for me) is how many memories, anecdotes, and stories would you like to record!
Generally speaking, in a two-hour Story Keeping interview we can record or film a lot, we will cover the important topics; the people places, milestones and important memories in our storyteller's life. For storytellers with a particularly good memory, or those with family stories or history, with large families, long careers, particular interests, and big or complicated lives four hours can be a good option. Of course, we will never capture everything, and everyone is different.
Some families ask me to record all I can within two hours, others say, all your can up to four hours, and others say let's just see how much time is needed.
How it works
Preparation
The first thing I do is to have a conversation or two with our storyteller. I will explain the process and the timings and go through my pre-interview questionnaire in depth to find out about my storyteller's life. This is an important stage as it helps me to get to know my storyteller a little, plan the interview and make sure we get the most out of our time together.
This stage is also really helpful for the storyteller, getting in the mind frame to start slowly reflecting on their stories and memories and usually leaves them feeling confident and excited about the whole experience and, very importantly, helps me to plan the interview and to get to know my storyteller a little.
The Story Keepers interview
The core of all I do is the recorded Story Keepers interview. I use gentle prompts and questions to help storytellers to share their stories and reflect on their memories; the family stories they heard, childhood memories, memories of parents, grandparents and other important people, memories of leaving home, falling in love, of ambitions, challenges they may have faced, careers, hobbies and the list goes on. It is your life your story. I just help you to tell it, in your own words.
I know exactly which questions to ask, how, and when. I know when to prompt and when to pause. I know how to encourage my storytellers to share their thoughts, feelings, reflections, and even values alongside the memories and the stories.
Very importantly, it is never rushed, if we need to pause we pause.
Face-to-face interviews usually take place at the storyteller's house. We speak for up to two hours at a time, taking pauses or breaks whenever needed. If we are going to speak for more than two hours we'll make a second interview date.
For remote interviews, we keep each interview session to one hour or less. We will agree on the best platform to use, I prefer to use a video call for both audio and video filming and can either use a platform that is familiar to the storyteller or ideally, but ideally, we will use Zencastr.
What happens next?
I now start editing your stories into easy-to-navigate topic-based chapters. Each chapter is usually around ten minutes long.
The edits: Two weeks after your interview(s) you will receive a private link or download to the first edit of your audio recording to review.
Please note, the timeframe may vary.
Amendments: Within four weeks of the interview (s) we ask you to confirm any edits that you would like.
Approval: Five weeks after the interview you will receive the updated film or audio recording for your final approval.
Your audio memoir is complete: When you are happy with the audio you will receive the links to download your audio files plus a copy on a USB stick in a Story Keepers gift box.
Please notes times may vary, but if you have a deadline let us know!
Gift vouchers
Yes, we do gift vouchers!
Feel free to call 07903582474 or email me alice@thestorykeepers.co.uk to discuss your potential project or to buy a gift voucher, or fill in the contact form below with any questions you may have.
“Having recently been a customer, I am a huge fan of The Story Keepers Uk; keeping our family stories alive audibly makes perfect sense to me ~ all the nuances and different tones are captured in the moment of telling.
Then there is Alice Mayers, interviewer and listener extraordinaire! Her professionalism and skill at coaxing out the stories that need to be told with great deference and charm is awesome to witness and every bit worth the investment. With all the recording paraphernalia for a top-class result, she makes the experience extremely relaxed and fun. Her genuine interest in the subject, her willingness and patience with subsequent editing and fine-tuning to get an excellent end product was part of the great service we received”
— Jane W. 2023
Have a listen to a couple of snippets below. In the first ‘Defending Birmingham’ my storyteller starts by speaking of his father’s wartime experiences. The second is a snippet from a commission from The charity The Together Plan and in it my storyteller talks of her experiences as a prisoner of war in Russia.