About us

How it started

Ibby Stockdale and Sophia Coates are story gatherers and storytellers who share a background in making films about a wide variety of people and businesses. So not only do we think and write visually, but we intuitively find the compelling themes and stories as they emerge. Talking to friends and colleagues, we realised how many wonderful lived stories and business adventures there are to be told. So we formed Ginger Tale Books, to give everyone the chance to tell their unique story first hand.

The Time Traveller style of book was initially inspired by the personal experience of writing short books about our mothers’ lives. The books gave our mums a voice and incorporated some wonderfully warm and insightful contributions from family and friends.  And the books’ very existence means that our mothers’ stories have been kept alive to be enjoyed by us, our children and by generations to come.

The Arc style was hatched over a cup of tea by a roaring fire in the Devon countryside, as we were briefed to write the complex story of a family business. We soon realised that an archival or chronological approach would miss the mark. We could see that what they had achieved was indeed remarkable and that we had to create something unique to do the tale justice. Distilling the themes and projects that spanned the years, we took the reader on an enjoyable adventure to the beating heart of the story.

The Snapshots book style came out of listening to a friend recounting a few lovely family stories and realising that her children and grandchildren would one day treasure those anecdotes being passed down in a book.

And as Ginger Tale Books evolved, we realised that all three styles - Time Traveller, Arc and Snapshots - worked equally well as personal or business stories.