Before Now is a life history collection kit that helps you capture and preserve your loved ones' stories and wisdom through conversations. The pack includes question cards covering different life aspects, from childhood memories to life advice. You'll record conversations with your loved one using the cards as prompts, then send the recording to us to be transcribed into Life Pages and - if you like - turned into a beautiful book.

We recommend about an hour for each conversation, but you can be flexible based on you and your loved one's energy and interest levels. You can create a Before Now book from just one conversation or have multiple sessions - though we suggest not having more than one per day.

Before Now can be adapted for different needs. For those with memory difficulties or health concerns, we recommend shorter 20-30 minute sessions, focusing on one category at a time, and choosing the best time of day for your loved one. You can also have a family member or carer present and use photographs to help prompt memories.

We take data protection seriously and fully comply with GDPR requirements. Your recordings are transmitted and stored securely, and we only use them for creating your Life Pages. All our processes have been carefully designed with privacy in mind. For complete details about how we handle your personal information, please refer to our privacy policy.

We use a local AI transcription tool to securely and efficiently transcribe the recordings sent to us before they are thoroughly checked and edited by humans. Because the tool runs locally on our systems rather than in the cloud, your data never leaves our infrastructure and is not used to train or improve any external AI models. This means we can keep your data secure and prevent it being used to train AI models. We take your data security extremely seriously and are committed to ensuring it is treated as securely as possible at all times.

Yes! Once you order your Life Pages as a book, you'll be able to order as many copies as you'd like to share with family and friends.

Each pack contains:

• 1 Before Now book with photo wallets
• 2 decks of 52 question cards (Reflections and Advice)
• 15 'Questions I am Happy to be Asked Today' sheets
• 1 pen

You'll just need a recording device (a phone is perfect!)

That's completely normal and we've designed Before Now with this in mind. Before each session, your loved one can fill out a 'Questions I am Happy to be Asked Today' sheet to indicate which topics they're comfortable discussing. You can also skip any questions that don't feel right and use our blank 'Write Your Own' cards for personalised questions.

Because our Life Pages are made by humans, and are bespoke records of your conversation that balance readability with accuracy, they can take a couple of weeks to arrive at your door. We are working to improve this timeframe as we grow.

Sadly, we don't yet support translation services, only transcription. We are working to amend this; one of Before Now's founding principles are that life history should be accessible for everyone. As we grow our business, we will reinvest our profits into providing the best, most inclusive services for our customers.

Yes - we have some sample questions available here.

No, you can upload your Before Now recordings whenever you like.

Yes - there is no limit to how many Life Pages orders you can place. During a single Life Pages order you can add up to 3hrs' worth of recordings in one go.