My grandad was a Birmingham boy. He served in the RAF, spent time in South East Asia in his twenties, and came home to raise four sons. By the time I knew him, he was a man who believed children should be seen and not heard. We loved him – but we didn't really know him.
One year, I drove him from London to my parents' for Christmas. Four hours in a car together. For the first time, I got to ask him about his life properly – and he answered. The nerves of the RAF postings. The worries about my dad and his brothers when they were small. The love stories he never told us. The laughter at things that had only been funny in retrospect.
He's gone now. My only wish was that I had any of it in a book somewhere to reference. Not for me – for my children, and theirs.
That's why I built Chronicle. He would never have written a memoir himself. He would never have answered a weekly email. But being guided through the conversation – by someone who loved him – got so much out. That is the experience Chronicle is built around.
We are a small team in London. We print in the UK. The first Chronicle is the one I am making for my parents now.
Charlie
Founder, Chronicle
