A unique collation of stories giving an insight into life and growing old in 22 countries
We are very excited to announce our Life Stories book, the collation of stories written by young people submitted for our Life Stories project, will be published in early January and will officially be launched on 11 March 2019, Commonwealth Day.
Entitled A Common Wealth of Experience: Freedom fighters, child brides and other untold real life stories, the book consists of 50 stories, and it takes the reader on an exciting journey across 22 countries. The memories of people aged between 73 and 101 relate to natural disasters and wars, cultural influences and family circumstances, and they show how these have shaped the personal lives of the storytellers.
Hannah Realey, a talented 19-year old at Hayling Print in England is currently preparing the book for publication with beautiful creative imagery to compliment the stories and pictures of the older story tellers with young authors.
“The stories are privileged insights into personally endured experiences over the last 70 to 100 years,” says Dr Ingrid Eyers, co-editor of the book. “It is interesting to see how the importance of education and family feature strongly in many of the stories.”
By bringing the generations together to give mutual respect and support, the book has greatly contributed to reducing ageist attitudes.
As part of the submission process, young authors wrote about what they had personally gained from this experience, and it is clear the life histories made a significant impression. Several said they had gained a new respect for the older generation.
Two 16-year-old authors from Cyprus said hearing the life story altered their view on society and its flaws.
A young Maltese author commented on how much more she now appreciated the fact that today Malta is at peace, that she has a roof over her head and has food to eat. If it hadn’t been for the sacrifices of people like the older person she spoke to history and our lives would have been very different.
An Australian writer commented on how much she’d learned. “I have gained more knowledge regarding my country, including the names of the many places that June had visited. Throughout writing this story, June and I spoke about each of our lives. It was intriguing to learn about June’s generation and how different it was to mine. During this conversation, I realised that there is so much more for me to learn and discover.”
In Uganda, a writer noted, “Having listened to the story of Mrs Ddangana, I have learned to be a hard working person because there is no gain in simple life.”
An Indian writer spoke to an older lady living with dementia. He compassionately explained that, while his storyteller doesn’t remember her life events and fails to recall daily information, as a music lover, she spoke about the many varieties of classical, folk, modern songs and the much loved songs of Tagore.
Annie Waddington-Feather, co-editor also points out personal details of historical aspects of the Commonwealth have been recorded for generations to come.
Both co-editors were moved to tears reading some of these stories and they hope readers enjoy reading the stories as much as they have done.