Delightful Photomemoirs project which involved published a set of short stories based on personal letters to friends and family - and enhancing them with photographs and other details.

From letters to a collection of life stories. Ruth McKenzie Bird was born in Aberdeen in 1931, but didn't stay long enough to get to know it. An only child with a vivid imagination, she was whisked off to the Far East, caught up in the events of the Second World War, and raised to adulthood on the African continent. She almost made it back to the UK to start a more sedate adult life there, but marriage to a young army officer put paid to that... Ruth wrote about her peripatetic life in letters to friends and family - always in her trademark turquoise ink, hence the name of her book. Her family hope that readers will enjoy Ruth's funny and frank observations as much as they did.

We were really honoured to be part of this project. The author of a collection of lovely army wife stories was written by the late mother of our "twinned" family, the Birds. Our parents were the closest of friends all their lives in the Loyal regiment. Ruth BIrd's army wife adventures were already written but had never been published. At Photomemoirs we provided the book cover following an idea from Ruth's daughters Leslie and Steph. We provided maps for each chapter, formatted the stories and added the photos. It was a true team effort and we were all very gratified when the response from family and army friends was overwhelmingly positive.

Leslig Glegg née Bird “I never dreamed it would be possible for our mother’s short, but witty autobiographical stories to be transformed into an actual book, but thanks to Photomemoirs’ constant advice and support, that’s what has happened. Peter advised us to flesh out her stories with lots of photos and an introduction, so we set to work. The introduction turned into a biography of our mother and we unearthed more than enough photos from the family archives to illustrate both introduction and stories. Peter explained how to send all our Word documents and photos to Photomemoirs and made inspired suggestions, such as the addition of little maps above each chapter heading to show where each story was taking place and the insertion of footnotes for more background information where necessary. The whole process was great fun , yet surprisingly cathartic. We are hugely grateful to Carl and Peter for all their patience and hard work on our mother’s behalf. Several of her oldest friends have said she would have been so proud to see her work in a published book at last!”

Stephanie Bruntlett née Bird "It's been a real pleasure working with Photomemoirs on our Mother's book. Peter is always quick to respond to emails, and does so with humour and empathy. Meanwhile, Carl turns all our suggestions and submissions into magic! Our book is so professional, we love it. It's made what could have been a chore into a labour of love, and our family and friends are utterly delighted with it. Thank you both."

Copenhagen to Ipoh by Lisette Staal Williams