"Play violin, play. Play loud and play sweet, but play not my feelings nor the strings of my jealous heart for that has been broken too many times to willingly trust the full melody of another's tune. Dance rain, dance! Dance upon the earth's crust of fragile oblivion and let me feel once more your wet touch to lip's taste. Move spirit move. Move my mind and magical powers into my finger tips and set my hands on fire with musical desire so that all who hear shall want and beg for more. Play violin play and live out thy vibrations of effortless emotion and sensuous seranade!" William Forde: April 5th, 2014
- Home
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My Books
- Book List & Themes
- Strictly for Adults Novels >
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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 >
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Bill's Personal Development
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- What I'd like to be remembered for
- Second Chances
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- 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 >
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- My Wedding
- My Funeral
- Audio Downloads
- My Singing Videos
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- Contact Me
Thought for today:
"Play violin, play. Play loud and play sweet, but play not my feelings nor the strings of my jealous heart for that has been broken too many times to willingly trust the full melody of another's tune. Dance rain, dance! Dance upon the earth's crust of fragile oblivion and let me feel once more your wet touch to lip's taste. Move spirit move. Move my mind and magical powers into my finger tips and set my hands on fire with musical desire so that all who hear shall want and beg for more. Play violin play and live out thy vibrations of effortless emotion and sensuous seranade!" William Forde: April 5th, 2014
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Thought for today: "From the moment we are born, from the first time we open our eyes, speak our first word and take our first step, we start the end of our day. It is one of the greatest paradoxes of life that from the moment our lungs first breathe, we all have a terminal illness; that of life itself. Just like the start of our day, we all know that the end of the day will inevitably arrive and that sleep will beckon. What none of us know with certainty, however much one may believe with absolute conviction, is that there is a life thereafter! Yet, who can dispute the very fact that though a body dies, that not all one is and has been dies with them. Does not their spirit live on? Whether one believes or doesn't believe in a God, know that there is certain proof of life and influence beyond the grave. Just look at the values, beliefs, sayings, mannerisms and characteristics that one person can pass down the generations, decades and centuries after the sod beneath which they lay has long been turned. Do you know that your image is a carbon copy of a distant relative of yours that lived three or four hundred years ago, and that this identical likeness will be reproduced in yet another person who is not yet conceived in thought, and then another person in a future century? Do you know that you stand, talk, walk, drink your tea and do all manner of things exactly like an uncle, aunt or other relative of yours once did and who you never knew? So rest assured that at the end of your day, the darkness which you see as your eyes close will bring forth new days and bright mornings to those you leave behind." William Forde: April 4th, 2014. Thought for today: "Whether the child be playing, praying or simply pulling a face, of one thing we can be sure; that their emotional expression will speak for itself as its honesty screens across their little faces. Such looks can never betray the inner truth of their heart and soul and they make all manner of descriptive words redundant in their use. Who could possibly deny them their prayer or rejoice in the innocent gaiety of their experiences and mischievousness of thought? " William Forde: April 3rd, 2014 Thought for today: "When choosing a lifetime pet, pick carefully. For some, though they sleep ever so soundly, may awake with a bark and scratchiness that is best avoided. Others like my Buster surprise you immensely when you least expect it and think that you have sussed them out. For example, Buster is Buster and there couldn't be another like him.He is a truly trusted friend in my life who will never turn his affections away from me. Buster never sleeps when I do. When I sleep he guards me and when he sleeps I always keep my eye on him. He's my dog and we look after each other!" William Forde: April 2nd, 2014. Thought for today: "As a Probation Officer for over twenty five years, I frequently came across people whose response patterns identified them clearly as being one of life's 'avoiders.' Such avoiders preferred to be in prison instead of the community, in hospital rather than at home, unemployed as opposed to in gainful employment. Some preferred to seek permanent refuge in an addictive lifestyle of gambling, alcohol or drugs rather than live independent lives and fend for themselves. Whether or not they preferred to be 'in it' (prison or hospital) or 'out of it' (alcohol or drug addiction), the immediate benefit they seemed to derive from their life choice was one of not needing to make any important decisions. They didn't need to do anything other than what they were doing in order to carry on getting what they preferred or craved for. Their avoidance pattern and addictive lifestyle essentially took all responsibility away from them; effectively rendering all decision making redundant! Were some well-meaning person to attempt to remove them from their addictive lifestyle by forcing them to face the facts, the avoider would simply revert to their previous behaviour pattern and return to a pattern of re-offending, suicide attempts, addiction, self abuse or overdose! Ah.....decisions, decisions! There are many times when we may believe that life would be so much easier if there weren't any decisions to be made, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Decision making is a vital survival tool in establishing true independence, appropriate assertiveness, peace and happiness along with conviction of purpose and clarity of cause. Take it from me that there is no fear which can be lessened one iota by refusing to face it; no peace to be gained by avoiding certain confrontational situations, no action that can be accomplished satisfactorily by refusing to do anything at all and no life that can be lived by deciding to lay down and die! Becoming a parent and starting a family ought to be the beginning of this practice in your children's lives. While we may have to initially decide certain things for them as infants, we should never decide for them when they are capable of deciding for themselves. In this range of decisions I would include important things like jobs, religion, choice of a marriage partner and the adoption of particular parenting practices as a few of the more obvious decisions where loving parents often trespass and encroach upon. It matters less if we make mistakes as we learn to make our own decisions in life, but it does matter considerably if we learn to avoid making our own decisions. To ensure that you don't lose control of your life and destiny, all you have to do is to live life as an adult, parent, partner, man, woman, gay or heterosexual who doesn't allow others to decide what is best for you." William Forde: April 1st, 2014. Thought for today: "I have to visit the hospital again today; this time to have a marrow biopsy. This will determine along with my recent node removal for biopsy, how advanced my condition is and whether or not my cancer has spread to the bone. While there are a number of things that one doesn't necessarily look forward to facing, there are fortunately so many things in one's life that one derives much comfort in looking back upon. There are things in one's life that mean something 'special' to each of us. For once, I refer not to family, people or their qualities of character or their beliefs and values. In the main we all hold these aspects of our life as being 'special.' Instead I refer to special loves in one's life which relate to things that bring great pleasure; things that greatly enrich one's life by their presence in it, things which would represent a significant loss in your life if they were no longer there or you could never experience them again. For me, such loves which I would find unbearable to be without would be books, art and music, to name but three. Isn't it strange how important a book, a work of art or a piece of music or song can be in shaping the very the very person you started as, who you are presently and the person you will become. I was a Probation Officer for over 25 years and it was reading the story by Victor Hugo of 'Les Miserables' as a 13-year-old child who was prone to steal which inspired me towards the type of work that was to mean so much to me. I also recall seeing a religious painting of 'The Last Supper' by Leonardo da Vinci as a young boy. Having been raised an Irish Catholic, I grew up knowing that whilst English ladies and gentlemen didn't discuss certain aspects at the dinner table that the Irish, Italians, French and many other countries didn't practice such constraints, and nor did the Jews in the time of Christ. Hence, I have always believed in the importance of sitting down as a family to eat and talk together about whatever matters most to whomever at the time. While there are so many beautiful pieces of music or songs which have meant so much to me over the years, one which holds a precious place in my heart is the song that my dear friend, Stuart Merry (a musician and former Head Master from Huddersfield), composed and wrote for my musical play, 'Douglas the Dragon' which the National Lottery paid for me to write and produce in the New Millennium. While I didn't write or compose this song, I was able to produce it to a high professional standard in the recording studio and do it full justice, I believe. The song is sung by my friend; a music teacher and professional singer, Kevin Carville who now lives abroad. The song is entitled,'You on my mind'. There is a sad section in my 'Douglas the Dragon Musical Play' (which can be freely downloaded from my website) that required a song and piece of music that was suitable for a bereavement scene. In the play, a village is destroyed by an earthquake and half of its inhabitants are killed. Whilst looking through the ruins and rubble of his destroyed home, a man who lost his wife in the earthquake finds a framed photograph of her and as he looks upon her image, he sings to her all of those words that her sudden death deprived him of telling her before she died. Never leave unsaid what you would like to say, as it matters oh so much to the ones you leave behind. I love the song so much that I would be very pleased to have it at my own funeral." William Forde: March 31st, 2014. Please use the link below to hear. http://www.fordefables.co.uk/uploads/1/0/1/5/10153721/03_you_on_my_mind.mp3 |
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