Helen Parker-Drabble recovers ordinary lives from the traces they leave behind. A Bristol-based author, speaker, and former counsellor, she reconstructs lives from census returns, civil registration, and family papers, and reads what she finds in the light of what psychology has established about how people are shaped by what happens to them, and how the effects reach the generations that follow. Her talks show audiences how to read family history as more than dates and documents, and how behaviour a family has long put down to a difficult character can be understood in the light of what they lived through.

She writes the Who Do I Think You Were?® series. Her most recent book, 'Yet': A Story of Triumph over Childhood Separation, Trauma, and Disability, was Runner-up for the CILIP LSG Alan Ball Award 2025 (Best Hardcopy Publication) and Silver Winner in the NFAA Book Awards 2026 (Biography and Memoir).

She speaks in person across South West England and worldwide via Zoom. Short-notice Zoom enquiries welcome.