"Each person possesses a basic decency and goodness. If they have the wisdom to listen to it and the strength to act upon it, they will be truthful and just to the world they inhabit. It is not complicated to recognise, but takes courage to boldly display it. So, don't be afraid to be yourself; to be the decent and good person you intrinsically are and always have been. Never forget that still waters run deep, truth will out and so will you!" William Forde: January 30th, 2013.
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- About Me
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My Books
- Book List & Themes
- Strictly for Adults Novels >
-
Tales from Portlaw
>
- No Need to Look for Love
- 'The Love Quartet' >
-
The Priest's Calling Card
>
- Chapter One - The Irish Custom
- Chapter Two - Patrick Duffy's Family Background
- Chapter Three - Patrick Duffy Junior's Vocation to Priesthood
- Chapter Four - The first years of the priesthood
- Chapter Five - Father Patrick Duffy in Seattle
- Chapter Six - Father Patrick Duffy, Portlaw Priest
- Chapter Seven - Patrick Duffy Priest Power
- Chapter Eight - Patrick Duffy Groundless Gossip
- Chapter Nine - Monsignor Duffy of Portlaw
- Chapter Ten - The Portlaw Inheritance of Patrick Duffy
- Bigger and Better >
- The Oldest Woman in the World >
-
Sean and Sarah
>
- Chapter 1 - 'Return of the Prodigal Son'
- Chapter 2 - 'The early years of sweet innocence in Portlaw'
- Chapter 3 - 'The Separation'
- Chapter 4 - 'Separation and Betrayal'
- Chapter 5 - 'Portlaw to Manchester'
- Chapter 6 - 'Salford Choices'
- Chapter 7 - 'Life inside Prison'
- Chapter 8 - 'The Aylesbury Pilgrimage'
- Chapter 9 - Sean's interest in stone masonary'
- Chapter 10 - 'Sean's and Tony's Partnership'
- Chapter 11 - 'Return of the Prodigal Son'
- The Alternative Christmas Party >
-
The Life of Liam Lafferty
>
- Chapter One: ' Liam Lafferty is born'
- Chapter Two : 'The Baptism of Liam Lafferty'
- Chapter Three: 'The early years of Liam Lafferty'
- Chapter Four : Early Manhood
- Chapter Five : Ned's Secret Past
- Chapter Six : Courtship and Marriage
- Chapter Seven : Liam and Trish marry
- Chapter Eight : Farley meets Ned
- Chapter Nine : 'Ned comes clean to Farley'
- Chapter Ten : Tragedy hits the family
- Chapter Eleven : The future is brighter
-
The life and times of Joe Walsh
>
- Chapter One : 'The marriage of Margaret Mawd and Thomas Walsh’
- Chapter Two 'The birth of Joe Walsh'
- Chapter Three 'Marriage breakup and betrayal'
- Chapter Four: ' The Walsh family breakup'
- Chapter Five : ' Liverpool Lodgings'
- Chapter Six: ' Settled times are established and tested'
- Chapter Seven : 'Haworth is heaven is a place on earth'
- Chapter Eight: 'Coming out'
- Chapter Nine: Portlaw revenge
- Chapter Ten: ' The murder trial of Paddy Groggy'
- Chapter Eleven: 'New beginnings'
-
The Woman Who Hated Christmas
>
- Chapter One: 'The Christmas Enigma'
- Chapter Two: ' The Breakup of Beth's Family''
- Chapter Three: From Teenager to Adulthood.'
- Chapter Four: 'The Mills of West Yorkshire.'
- Chapter Five: 'Harrison Garner Showdown.'
- Chapter Six : 'The Christmas Dance'
- Chapter Seven : 'The ballot for Shop Steward.'
- Chapter Eight: ' Leaving the Mill'
- Chapter Ten: ' Beth buries her Ghosts'
- Chapter Eleven: Beth and Dermot start off married life in Galway.
- Chapter Twelve: The Twin Tragedy of Christmas, 1992.'
- Chapter Thirteen: 'The Christmas star returns'
- Chapter Fourteen: ' Beth's future in Portlaw'
-
The Last Dance
>
- Chapter One - ‘Nancy Swales becomes the Widow Swales’
- Chapter Two ‘The secret night life of Widow Swales’
- Chapter Three ‘Meeting Richard again’
- Chapter Four ‘Clancy’s Ballroom: March 1961’
- Chapter Five ‘The All Ireland Dancing Rounds’
- Chapter Six ‘James Mountford’
- Chapter Seven ‘The All Ireland Ballroom Latin American Dance Final.’
- Chapter Eight ‘The Final Arrives’
- Chapter Nine: 'Beth in Manchester.'
- 'Two Sisters' >
- Fourteen Days >
-
‘The Postman Always Knocks Twice’
>
- Author's Foreword
- Contents
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Chapter Twenty
- Chapter Twenty-One
- Chapter Twenty-Two
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Celebrity Contacts
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Thoughts and Musings
- Bereavement >
- Nature >
-
Bill's Personal Development
>
- What I'd like to be remembered for
- Second Chances
- Roots
- Holidays of Old
- Memorable Moments of Mine
- Cleckheaton Consecration
- Canadian Loves
- Mum's Wisdom
- 'Early life at my Grandparents'
- Family Holidays
- 'Mother /Child Bond'
- Childhood Pain
- The Death of Lady
- 'Soldiering On'
- 'Romantic Holidays'
- 'On the roof'
- Always wear clean shoes
- 'Family Tree'
- The importance of poise
- 'Growing up with grandparents'
- Love & Romance >
- Christian Thoughts, Acts and Words >
- My Wedding
- My Funeral
- Audio Downloads
- My Singing Videos
- Bill's Blog
- Contact Me
Thought for today:
"Each person possesses a basic decency and goodness. If they have the wisdom to listen to it and the strength to act upon it, they will be truthful and just to the world they inhabit. It is not complicated to recognise, but takes courage to boldly display it. So, don't be afraid to be yourself; to be the decent and good person you intrinsically are and always have been. Never forget that still waters run deep, truth will out and so will you!" William Forde: January 30th, 2013.
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Thought for today: " 'Mum said that you wouldn't be back home again, Dad. When I asked her what you were fighting for and what you died for that was more important than us, she told me that you were fighting for the safety and future of all families. She said that you were fighting for the 'future', that you died for the 'future' and then reminded me that me and Rosie are the 'future'. Don't worry about us any more, Dad, I'll look after mum and little Rosie. We love you, dad.'" William Forde: January 29th, 2013. Thought for today: "To endure is greater than to dare, for survival demands no less than being able to both face and withstand it. Not allowing difficulties to daunt and to maintain heart when all around have lost theirs is at the very core of reasoning why one person will succeed and another fail to perform similar tasks." William Forde: January 28th, 2013. Thought for today: "All personal trials throughout life are there to teach one the value of unmerited suffering. We can all endure pain when it has come about through our own fault and personal deliverance, but to experience unwarranted hurt without reacting with bitterness is the only road to transform suffering into a creative force that will surely strengthen both body and soul. To live and breathe involves experiences of pain and pleasure. Without either one, we could never know the other. Learn how to master both and you will have learned how to mould experiences, fashion happiness and master life itself. Just as we come from clay, then to the earth shall we one day return. " William Forde: January 27th, 2013. Thought for today: "Of all the forces that make for a better world, none is so indispensable nor as endurable or all powerful as 'hope.' Whereas it is mankind's lot to accept finite disappointment, one should never lose infinite hope of better things to come for it is the greatness of one's hope that truly makes one great itself. There are so many iconic pictures that have conveyed 'hope' to me in my life, but the ones that will stay with me include the celebration of good days to come after the Second World War had devastated the world." William Forde: January 20th, 2013. "Thought for today: "Today is the anniversary of my mum's birthday. She died when she was barely 64 years old. She was perhaps the best story teller I ever knew and loved life to the full with a wicked side to her that was simply forgivable. I feel sure that it was her influence over my growing imagination as a child when she spoke about the nuns that taught her that confirmed me in the role of author and not that of priest. Indeed, many of the stories in the 'Tales from Portlaw' section of my website use the germ of a story that my mother told me when I was growing up and which I have embellished as a writer of Irish descent. http://www.fordefables.co.uk/tales-from-portlaw.html I love you Mum. Your eldest Billy xxx." William Forde: January 24th, 2013. Thought for today: "Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace in a time of great uncertainty. Faith in humanity's capacity to cherish 'good' over 'bad' is the quality that is required to carry it out.Shoulder your burdens with courage of the heart and the weight of the world will not descend on you." William Forde: January 23rd, 2013. "When it comes to 'hard work', we westerners have much to learn from the industriousness of the east. Is it any wonder that the economies of China and Japan are still growing while ours in Europe contract? And the reason is as plain as a pikestaff. While many of our workers are only too easily persuaded to fit an extra tea break into their day, those grafters out east are more prone to drop off an extra batch on their way home." William Forde: January 22nd, 2013. Thought for today: " We all have a hectic day from time to time which just seems to knock us out for the count. Don't you find it somewhat strange though that whatever your upbringing or station in life happens to be, when we are asleep, we quickly lose all pretence of dignity and abandon all sense of inhibition." William Forde: January 20th, 2013. Thought for today: "I know that many countries such as our European neighbours France and Ireland have eaten horse meat as a regular contributor to the nation's plate for many years now and even consider it far better than beef or pork because of there being less fat on the bone. However, whilst I accept that it won't kill anyone to eat horse meat, it does makes one wonder what else they put in it to stand the test of time?" William Forde: January 19th, 2013. Thought for today: " The American writer and Minister, Norman Vincent Peale once said that if you are not getting as much from life as you want to, then you should examine your enthusiasm. As I review the past 60 years, I honestly find it difficult to view the 'progress' that society has reportedly made with any degree of marked enthusiasm. Since the introduction of television to our homes 60 years ago followed by the onset of 'Breakfast Television' thirty years ago to the day, we have essentially lived in a much more dangerous and decadent world, where the morals and behaviour of the nation as a whole has drastically declined. As a lover of both word and image, I have always been aware of their combined influence that they exercise over one's behaviour. As a Behaviourist though, I have long been aware of the increased power of image over that of the word in determining the way we ultimately act. Since the onset of television in the 1950s, I have witnessed the debasement of the English language across the whole of society along with a greater willingness to use images in any way that reinforces the act being described or desired. In short; as the power of the word has been down-graded it has inevitably declined in being able to influence action. Conversely, the power of the image has grown ever-greater within our communication processes and the repetition of images has been responsible for dulling our senses and desensitising our feelings. We no longer feel repulsed when we watch people dying or being brutalised on our television news screens while we continue to eat our evening meal. All this has produced a moral collapse as a nation and we have undoubtedly lost our moorings. Oh, I recall with sweet memory, listening to the word of the wireless over breakfast, reading the word of heroes/heroins and adventurers in school and library books, dining and talking with all the family over evening meal, discussing the newspaper headlines or some other matter with my brothers and sisters and walking out as a family to the local park on a Sunday afternoon to listen to the playing of a brass band before preparing for another week's hard work. Come back radio for all and ban all television in our homes. Depend more on the word and less on the image." William Forde: January 17th, 2013. Thought for today: "Controllers of birds discovered long ago that to keep their prey forever captive, they simply clipped their wings or removed their feathers. Since that discovery, the very same principle has been applied to womanhood, ensuring that the species remains servant to its masculine master. Men who wished to control their women found that by removing their clothes, divesting them of all real power, subsuming their identity under their surname, belittling their pride and making them into 'mother machines' and 'wifely whores' was the most effective way of caging them from flying beyond their grasp and ensuring that all manner of freedom had been seized from them." William Forde: January 16th, 2013. Thought for today: " They do say that before anyone should ever judge another that they ought to first walk a mile in their shoes. Ever since the Crucifixion of Christ, the Jewish people have been judged in the harshest and cruelest of ways. Indeed, there are even some of narrow mind who genuinely believe that the 'Holocaust' was God's ultimate price exacted upon their race. Why not look at this mountain of bodies and shoes belonging to the six million Jews who were exterminated and executed by the Nazis during the 'Second World War' and ask yourself if you would ever have possessed the courage and strength to walk in them?" William Forde: January 15th, 2013. Thought for today: "Success and excuses never talk to each other, just as happiness and insecurity shall never share the same space. Selfishness and humility will never touch you on the shoulder within the same second; neither will mankind ever be able to have both God and greed as the protector of all that he holds dear in life. Me without you; simply unthinkable!" William Forde: January 14th, 2013. Thought for today: " How soft the touch of tiny hands, how harsh the feel of winter stone. How goes the upkeep of my woodland grave, now that all strength has left your hands and recollection of fond memory clouds your mind. How goes thy days now that you are left widowed and have only sweet memories of your past to draw upon; your childhood, your father and your husband?" William Forde: January 11th, 2013 Thought for today: "Look not to the earth for its lasting treasures; look instead to the heavens where all one could ever want and desire resides within the heart of man. This wonderful world has been made for mankind and is therefore made up of mankind; constructed in a ball of human entanglement where what one feels is of questionable worth unless it is also tied up with the feelings of another." William Forde: January 10th, 2013. Thought for today: " Oh beautiful creature of the wild, baptise me in thy joy. Oh bird of peace help me to shoulder this white man's burden. Oh branch of life, feed me the sap of wisdom from your bough. Oh world so rich in natural resources,why dost thou not feed the blackest of thy birds?" William Forde: January 9th,2013. Thought for today: " Have you ever wondered about the many paths you walk and, in particular, the types of people who may have trod them in previous years for many different purposes? Wherever we are, we can rest assured that someone has been there before us. Perhaps they travelled this path to simply catch the night-time air or to rendesvous with a married lover. Some may have run it in panic as they ran to escape a life of unhappiness or a cruel step parent while others waited in hiding to rape, rob, assault or even murder an innocent passer by. In its 173 years, the road has seen many sights and holds numerous secrets; perhaps one of the strangest of all being the identity of the naked rambler wearing only a red hood and carrying no olive branch." William Forde: January 8th,2013. Thought for today: " Just because I was never mothered doesn't mean that I am left without mothering instincts or the capacity to be a good parent. Just because I was never raped doesn't prevent me from feeling violated each time it happens to another. Just because I have never murdered doesn't mean that I don't carry that 'killer gene' inside me whenever I walk into a social gathering and know that all green eyes there are on 'little me'." William Forde: January 7th, 2013. |
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