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Garland Press

A book for their 18th, written by the people who know them.

A cloth-bound hardback of advice and stories from family, friends, godparents and teachers, including the ones who can’t be at the party.

Start their bookSee how it works →
£89including UK postage
18th & 21stor any milestone birthday
Pay at the endwhen the writing is ready
A Forest cloth hardback in its jacket, “For Theo, at eighteen”, lying on a table in afternoon sun beside its unwrapped paper and ribbon
Forest cloth · foil-stamped spine · printed jacket

Write freely, or start from a question.

1Everyone writes what they’d likeOne link, no account needed.

Hi Sam, you’re invited to write for

Theo

Write whatever you’d like to say: advice, a story, a memory. Please write by Saturday 28 November.

Need an idea?
Take your time – write it the way you’d tell it.
2A question for anyone who’s stuckTap a topic, pick one of its questions, and write from there.
Need an idea?

← Choose a different question

What do you know about money now that you wish someone had told you at 18?

Money! Your mum will tell you I’m the last person who should be giving anyone advice about this, and she’s got a point, but I have made most of the mistakes – which surely counts for something.
Add my words to the bookSave & finish later
3You read every entryReview entries and their photos, then add a foreword.

Theo’s book · organiser

12 of 16 have written

1Uncle SamMoney · 1,120 wordsNew
2DadLeaving home · 1,480 words
3EllieTheo and me · 560 words
4Cousin HannahWhen I was 18 · 1,050 words
5GrandadGetting it wrong · 2,310 words
6Mr Ellis (chemistry)Work · 940 words

Drag to reorder · Ask for a change · Leave one out

4Each piece becomes a chapterTypeset and bound in cloth, with any photo facing it.

Uncle Sam

What do you know about money now that you wish someone had told you at 18?

Money! Your mum will tell you I’m the last person who should be giving anyone advice about this, and she’s got a point, but I have made most of the mistakes – which surely counts for something.

But I’m guessing you don’t want a page of me telling you what not to do, and your mum will have that covered anyway. So instead I’m going to tell you about the best money I ever spent.

In 2006 your aunt and I paid £640 we didn’t really have for two flights to Vancouver. Her best friend Kirsty had moved out there, and we’d been saying we would visit for two years. We went for three weeks. Once we’d landed we had almost nothing left, so we slept on Kirsty’s floor, lived on bagels, and borrowed her car at weekends to drive up into the mountains.

I couldn’t tell you a single other thing I bought that year. I could tell you about every day of that trip, and I’m going to tell you about one of them.

It was the second weekend. We’d driven up past Whistler on a forestry road Kirsty had told us not to take, and about an hour after dark the car slid into a ditch and wouldn’t come out.

5

You bring the people. We make the book.

One month is enough. Tell us when the book must arrive and we’ll set the writing deadline.

  1. Today

    Set it up and share the link

    One link in the family WhatsApp, and people write whatever they like.

  2. Writing deadline

    Read it, then order

    Arrange the chapters, add a foreword and pay.

  3. Their birthday

    The book arrives

    Printed, bound and posted about 10 days after you order.

From a sample book for Theo

What did you learn the hard way when you first lived away from home?

What has Theo done for you that you’ve never properly thanked them for?

What do you know about money now that you wish someone had told you at 18?

What did you worry about at 18 that turned out not to matter?

Tell Theo about a time you got something badly wrong at around 18, and what happened next.

What’s one thing Theo should know how to cook, and how do you make it?

Every word is kept as it was written.

The opening of the chapter Bodington, 1994, by Dad, answering: What did you learn the hard way when you first lived away from home?

Nothing to pay until you’ve read it.

£89
including UK postage

Collect the writing for free. You only pay once you’re happy with what goes to print.

Start their book
  • A cloth-bound hardback in five colours, with a printed dust jacket
  • Typeset chapters, with optional colour photos and captions
  • Up to 30 people writing, plus an optional foreword from you
  • A proof checked by hand, then printed and bound in the UK

Before you begin

When should I start?

Four to eight weeks before the birthday is best. Two weeks is the minimum, or a few days more around bank holidays.

Tell us when the book needs to arrive and we’ll set the writing deadline about 12 days before it. That leaves time for you to read everything and order, and for us to print and post it.

What if someone isn’t a natural writer?

Every topic has a short, plain question for them: ‘What’s one thing you’ve learned about money? Say it the way you’d say it out loud.’ If they’d rather talk than type, sit with them and type it up on their link.

Can it be a surprise?

Yes. Say so in your note, which everyone sees before they write. Anyone the link is forwarded to can join, so don’t post it in a group chat they’re in.

You can turn the link off or replace it at any time, and it closes at the writing deadline.

Is any of the writing made by AI?

No. People write every contribution. The questions give them a way in; we typeset their words for the book.

All questions and answers →