Some Lives Should Be Recorded
Those who lead consequential lives, build organisations, or take on real responsibility rarely leave behind a full account.
I turn your story into the book that should exist, but doesn’t.
“I spoke to a few writers before Mark, but once we started talking I knew I had the right guy. He didn’t just write the story, he worked through it with me and made sense of it.”
David Giles - CEO, Entertainment Brands Group
Why Work With Me
I'm a UK-based writer working with people who've built, led and changed things to help create the books that should exist, but often don't. Memoirs, founder stories and accounts of lives that shaped the lives of others across business, community or culture, most are never properly recorded, and that's a shame.
A consequential life carries lessons in it, in the decisions, the judgement calls, the things that went right and the things that went wrong. Whether they are written for families and friends or for a wider public, those lessons can help us all.
I didn't arrive at this work from journalism or publishing. I came through business. Starting them and sitting on both sides of risk for long enough that I stopped having to imagine what those decisions felt like. I've experienced success and failure first-hand and know what it means when a single decision affects payroll, reputation or survival.
Earlier in my career, I wrote Crystal Mapping, a book on visual thinking and big picture communication. I've always had a thing for making sure the story you're telling hits the mark. The same discipline applies here. The goal is simple enough: stand far enough back to see the whole thing, breathe in life and energy, then make it make sense.
Whether you have a part written document that needs editing or finishing, or you're starting from scratch, the process is the same. I listen carefully and ask the questions that matter to help you produce something clear and dangerously human. Something others will want to read - not just another machine-driven business book.
If you've built something, led something, or made decisions that shaped outcomes beyond yourself, and you want that documented as a compelling story, give me a shout.
How We Can Work Together
There's no single reason people decide to get their story written down, and no single form it has to take.
I tend to focus on business, but a career in medicine, the arts, public service or sport can carry just as much consequence as anything that happens in a boardroom. What matters is the connection between the story and the people it's written for.
Private Memoir
A private account written for family, close friends and future generations. Not a public memoir, simply a clear and honest record of a life and career that captures the moments that mattered in a voice people will instantly recognise as yours.
Most lives, looked at properly, turn out to be considerably more interesting than the person who lived them realised. This is the process that proves it.
Public Memoir
For careers visible enough that a public memoir makes sense. Built for a general reader, shaped for publication, and written with the understanding that the whole point is to make people want to keep turning the page.
Most businesses document their assets carefully. Financial performance, legal structures, governance arrangements are all professionally kept and archived. What rarely gets documented is the thing that created those assets in the first place - judgement, values, decision making and guiding principles.
That knowledge doesn't appear in board papers or management reports. It lives in conversations, stories and personal memory, and it's often the most valuable thing a founder or leader possesses.
A Founder Record changes that.
For some, it's about preserving experience for the next generation, family, future leadership, the people who'll carry the business forward. For others, particularly those still active, it becomes something immediately useful: a way of communicating the depth of judgement, thinking and track record that clients, investors and partners are already buying, but rarely get to see properly explained.
Unlike a memoir, a Founder Record is often created while the story is still being written. It's not about looking back, it's about capturing what you know, while you're still using it to drive your business and careeer forward.
Thought Leadership Book
Then there's a different kind of book entirely. Where a Founder Record tells your story, a Thought Leadership Book makes an argument.
Here the goal isn't to tell a life story so much but a book built around ideas, hard-won perspective and a point of view on leadership, culture or a particular industry.
Done well, that kind of book does something a memoir can't. It positions you as a thinker, not just a practitioner, and gives you a platform that outlasts any single role or company.
Working out which of these fits is part of what I do before a word is written. If you’re not sure where to start, that’s fine, that uncertainty is usually where the conversation gets interesting.
Process & Engagement
Every project begins with a confidential consultation to clarify your objectives, intended audience and the scope of the work. From there:
The Interviews. We begin with a series of structured, recorded interviews to uncover the patterns, turning points and details that bring your story to life.
The Drafting. I shape the material into a compelling narrative, crafting each chapter into a publication-ready manuscript through a process of review, discussion and refinement.
The Refinement. Once you're happy with the structure and content, I deliver a complete manuscript for final review and approval.
The Book. Finally, I'll help you decide how you'd like your story to live on. Whether that's a beautifully produced private edition, a professionally printed hardback, independent publication or support in exploring traditional publishing, I'll guide you through the process and coordinate whatever level of editorial, design and production support is required.
Most projects take between six and nine months. Confidentiality and discretion are guaranteed throughout. Because of the depth of work involved, I take on only a small number of commissions each year.
Fees & Scope
Every project is different. The subject, depth and the intended audience shape the work and determine the cost.
Projects typically begin at around £6,000, with full memoirs and founder books starting from £15,000.
Final cost depends on the depth of research, length of manuscript and what you're trying to achieve.
In all cases we start with a conversation before anything is agreed. Payments are staged and, if it helps, can be spread monthly.
Every Story Begins With A Conversation.