About The Living Years

How many times have you expressed the wish that you’d told a lost friend or relative something special? That you could ask them a certain question? What would you give now to hear their voice one more time?

These questions are asked by virtually all of us as we move through life– yet most of us don’t do anything about it.

The same questions occurred to Nick Hammond soon after he lost his father several years ago and they spurred him to make audio recordings of his family and friends around him now, while he was still could; to talk to them today, take a snapshot in time to keep and return to for ever. As the years roll by, these recordings become priceless family heirlooms.

“You simply cannot put a price on the effect of hearing the living voice of someone you care about talking openly and naturally to an experienced interviewer,” says Nick, “especially once they are no longer with us. There is nothing I wouldn’t give to be able to hear my Dad’s voice again, so familiar in every cadence and tone, yet now lost, never to be heard again.

“To celebrate a person and what makes them who they are; to take time to listen to them, their accumulated wisdom, their hopes and fears, their experiences and their memories is something I feel very strongly about. It’s something every family should do, before they no longer can, in my humble opinion.

“It is also interesting to see how different – and often how much better – an interview you get when a professional writer and journalist – adept at prodding at the right time, asking the right questions, keeping quiet at the right time too – talks at length to a special guest. People are inclined, I feel, to react more honestly to an informed stranger; to say what they think, rather than what they think you want to hear; to recount stories and memories that are more reflective of their life and their personality.”

The Living Years is the result of these feelings and a desire to celebrate each and every one of us. We are all worth listening to.

* applies to orders taken on or before 1 March 2021

The Living Years Project is the brainchild of Nick Hammond, a respected writer, author and presenter from the UK.

Nick has spent a lifetime as a roving reporter, travelling the world and interviewing a vast range of people on a vast range of subjects, from Prime Ministers and Royalty to the homeless, from fishing boat captains to titans of industry; sportsmen and women, stars of stage and screen; musicians, politicians, and everyday folk with tales to tell.

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