Aunty Ruby & Bob

It all started when a small brown book was discovered amongst the belongings of our late Aunty Ruby who sadly passed away in 2010. The book had evidently been given to Ruby in the 1930s. In the many years following the outbreak of the Second World War she had used the book to ask her friends and family to complete a short set of questions about themselves, their lives and their hopes for the future.

As we started reading the handwritten answers, mostly in pencil, we were struck by how much we learnt about the special qualities and personality of everybody just from their handwriting and individual answers. Relatives who we thought of as very mature and forbidding were transformed in our minds when we saw the humour, thoughts and dreams that were evident in what they had written as young people.

Some of Ruby’s friends clearly took the book more seriously than others who were far more “tongue in cheek” about their responses. Either way, the book gave us a beautiful snapshot of the special people in Ruby’s life.

Aunty Ruby had always been a fun-loving and larger than life character spending her early years in Datchet, a small village near Windsor. She married Ken after the war moving to Birmingham where she had two children, Penny and Bob. Ruby maintained her book of memories for over 40 years.

Ruby’s book of memories inspired us to develop a brand new set of books to enable others to capture and share their own special memories about the important people in their lives.  The special quality of all the books is that they really can be “All About Everybody” in your life. No special person or occasion need ever be forgotten again.

Our Awards