Questions.

A finished thirteen-chapter life story, in the storyteller's own words. Life Story is the full digital edition – the complete book to read and share online. Memoir adds one casebound hardback with full-colour photos, printed and bound in the UK. Heirloom is the premium keepsake – one Smyth Sewn hardback with a custom-designed interior, ribbon marker and printed endpapers. The digital edition is included in every tier.

148 × 210mm – A5 sizing. A premium keepsake trim that sits comfortably in the hand and stands generously on the shelf.

FSC-certified paper in the printed editions. 130gsm for Memoir (the satisfying weight of a bookshop hardback). 150gsm for Heirloom (fine-art-edition paper). Life Story is a digital edition, so there is no printed paper unless you upgrade to Memoir or Heirloom.

Smyth Sewn means the page signatures (folded gatherings of pages) are thread-sewn together before the cover is attached. The result is a book that opens completely flat, that does not crack at the spine with repeated reading, and that will still be intact in a hundred years if stored reasonably. It is the binding standard for fine-art books and archival editions. It is how Heirloom is made.

In the United Kingdom. Chronicle works with UK fine-art book printers, not international print-on-demand. Every Chronicle is printed and fulfilled here, with proper materials and proper binding.

No. Chronicle leads the conversation and drafts each chapter from what the storyteller actually said – it invents and embellishes nothing. Every chapter is built from their own answers, and the storyteller reviews, refines and approves every page before anything is printed.

As long or as short a sitting as suits you. Some storytellers get going and talk for two or three hours; others do twenty minutes at a time and come back later – both work, and nothing is lost in between. Most Chronicles take six to twelve weeks from start to finished book, and once all the chapters are approved, printing and delivery take two to three weeks.

Chronicle is designed for people who are not. It works on any phone or tablet. No app to download, no account to remember. The interviewer is patient, repeats itself when asked, and never makes anyone feel rushed.

The storyteller (or whoever commissioned the Chronicle on their behalf) can mark the final chapters as not-needed from the book settings, and the finished book is made from the chapters that are complete. Heirloom customers get one-to-one support from us to help with this if it's wanted.

You'll always see their progress in your dashboard – chapters started, chapters approved, the book taking shape. To read the chapters themselves you need their permission; if they give it, you can read along, comment, and help with the designing of the book. The story stays theirs to share or keep private.

On the date you choose. You can pick a specific day – a birthday, an anniversary, Father's Day – or send it today. They receive a warm, personal note from Chronicle introducing themselves and inviting them to begin their first chapter whenever they are ready.

An email – warm, personal, naming you as the person who commissioned it. They click one link and arrive at their first chapter. No app to download, no account to set up before they begin.

No. The invitation does not show a price or a receipt. They will know you commissioned it – that is part of the gift.

Yes. The full-colour PDF is included in every tier and can be shared with everyone you want to give it to.

Chronicle doesn't hand everyone the same list of questions. Its AI interviewer listens to what the storyteller says and asks the natural next question, following the thread of their life at their own pace – so it feels like being listened to, not filling in a form. The more they share, the more it understands where to go next.

No. Chronicle is a one-off payment, never a subscription. There is no weekly email to ignore, no year-long commitment, no folder of disconnected answers at the end. One chapter at a time, and when the chapters are done the book is designed, printed in the UK and posted.

A complete thirteen-chapter life story. Life Story is the full digital edition, to read and share online. Memoir and Heirloom add a real, properly bound book – not a folder of files – 148 × 210mm (A5), printed and fulfilled in the UK on FSC-certified paper (130gsm for Memoir, 150gsm for Heirloom). Designed to be opened, read and re-read by the grandchildren who pick it up in 2075.

The story belongs to the storyteller and to the person who set the Chronicle up. Seeing it is a different matter. By default the storyteller is the only person who reads a word of it – whoever set the Chronicle up sees how it is going, chapters started and chapters approved and the book taking shape, and reads the story itself only if the storyteller chooses to share it. Nobody else sees anything.

A life story holds the most personal things about a person – health, beliefs, family, faith, the parts nobody else knows. The law treats that as the category needing the very highest protection, and Chronicle was built to that standard from the first line of code rather than fitted with it afterwards.

In practice that means four things. Stories are stored on servers in the EU. They are encrypted – scrambled so they cannot be read – both while they travel and while they sit. What is shared is never used to train AI models. And you can download every word, or delete every word, whenever you want.

Two honest caveats. A small number of Chronicle staff can reach a story where it is genuinely needed to fix a fault or answer a question you have asked us – never for anything else, and never out of curiosity. And a book that has already been printed cannot be recalled, which is why we ask you to acknowledge that before anything goes to print.

The short technical version, if you would rather have it that way: EU-hosted, encrypted in transit and at rest, explicit and revocable consent under GDPR Article 9 for special-category personal data, and registered with the ICO as a data controller.

Three beats. (1) The invitation lands on a date you choose – a birthday, an anniversary, or no occasion at all – with the first chapter ready to begin. (2) The storyteller works through thirteen guided conversations, one chapter at a time, at their own pace, with targeted reminders that never pressure. (3) When every chapter is finished, the digital edition is ready to read and share, and the Memoir and Heirloom editions are bound and posted as a printed book – printed in the UK, the kind of book that belongs on a shelf for generations.

Life Story is £99 – the full digital edition, with every feature. Memoir is £199 and adds a casebound hardback, the most popular choice. Heirloom is £399 – the premium keepsake, a Smyth Sewn hardback. All three are one-off payments – no subscription, no renewal, no ongoing commitment.

You can read a real finished chapter right now – our sample sets the same life told two ways, so you can see the depth of a Chronicle chapter against what a weekly-prompt tool produces. We don't post physical sample chapters, but the printed book's paper, binding and typography are all set out on The Book page.

It belongs to the storyteller and the person who commissioned it. It is hosted in the EU, encrypted in transit and at rest, and we never use it to train AI. You can export every word, or delete every word, at any time.

Yes. Chronicle is built around GDPR Article 9 (special-category personal data) compliance from day one. The consent model is four-step, granular, and revocable.