everyone has a story- tellletyouusrs
We all have a story to tell… But you don’t have to tell it on your own. At LifeBook, it’s a team effort which includes a project manager, interviewer, ghost-writer and an editor, who all work hard to produce the finished book for each author (the person who’s purchased or been gifted a LifeBook).
Julia Markson, who has been working as an interviewer with LifeBook for nearly four years, talks to us about the important role she has to play in capturing each author’s incredible life story by listening carefully to the recollections of their life and memories.
Julia says: “I have the best job in the whole process because I go along to meet the author with my recorder, build up a rapport, and over a period of three or four months, sometimes longer, I really get to know them properly.”
It’s Julia’s job to help the author get their story out. “Everybody has got a story to tell – you’ve got a story to tell, I’ve got a story to tell. It’s just a matter of encouraging people to tell their own story,” explains Julia.
How does she do this? Well, firstly interviewers and authors are paired up by locality and interest. “LifeBook interviews the interviewers, and gets to know who they are, so that when a LifeBook is purchased, they can match the author with the right person to interview them,” explains Julia.
Then it’s down to work. During her first interview with an author, after creating a family tree, she’ll discuss whether they’d prefer to start tackling their life story thematically or chronologically.
They’ll sit down together for 12 interviews of ninety minutes each. Even during lockdown, when face-to-face interviews have been replaced with video calls, a free tablet is sent to each author and full technical support is available, with the author and their LifeBook team remaining in close contact throughout.
The authors also get to review every two interviews and each instalment of their book so they can have full control over what goes into it.
After all, it’s about the author. “You do get to know them quite well, and it’s an interesting relationship, because you can’t have a general chat as you are interviewing them, it’s their book, it’s their words that are of interest,” says Julia. “It’s not my book, it’s theirs. It’s their words that go on the page.”
And the finished book, doesn’t just put a smile on the author’s face. Julia says: “I feel proud that I’ve helped this person write the story of their life, which will live on for generations.”