Before Dudley Editions existed as an app that you can easily download and use from your smartphone, it was an idea that came from a feeling of loss. I missed my grandmother telling me stories and knew I couldn’t recapture her unmistakable accent and delivery. It led me to explore the emerging technology landscape for ways to solve the problem. I quickly built an understanding that new technology could potentially solve this issue for those in the future.
With that as the catalyst, Dudley Editions was founded on two core premises: 1. That AI could and should be used for social good. 2. That being able to hear the voices of those we love is incredibly valuable to who we are as people.
Storytelling is one of the ways we engage with and remember those we know and love. Because human memory is relational, it is one of the ways families, friends, and communities carry each other forward. Voices we recognise can also facilitate memories, often via contextual cues, especially if we are focussing on their voice.
Sometimes, voices of those we know can seem like a lifeline, and often feel like the last tangible connection to those that we’re separated from. So it makes sense that people want to be able to hear the voice of someone they love, even if distance comes between. Today, bringing together technology and publishing offers powerful ways to restore and enable these personal, lived memories that are inherent in the voices we hear.
This connection is at the heart of Dudley Editions.
Every story created and shared is an act of care and connection that comes with a touch of the everyday: an aunt living across the country reading a bedtime story for your little ones; a short story from a Spanish-speaking grandmother in a language that an English-speaking child can understand; a way to share the space with parents and grandparents in care homes. Studies have found that when distance separates families with a member in care, or even when you just don’t live nearby your parents, siblings, or adopted family, we tend to visit them less.
By tapping into the way voices link to memory, via the medium of stories and technology, we can help keep the everyday moments alive in each of us. People can now capture and share their voices easily with those they care about with very little upfront investment of either time or money.
Across cultures, oral storytelling has been a vital way to pass down not just information but identity, humour, resilience, and love. From lullabies and parables, to bedtime stories, the human voice has carried meaning far beyond the words themselves. Dudley Editions recognises this legacy and brings it into the present, using technology not to replace human connection, but to support and sustain it.
There is a sense of importance to small-scale, bespoke storytelling that we want to tap into. This isn’t just about developing new forms of copyright or a new revenue stream for publishers, though both form an important part of this; it’s the concept that every voice and every story matters.
Who are the voices you’d want to carry with you? What stories do you want to leave behind? With Dudley Editions, these aren’t abstract questions. They’re invitations to begin.