Today’s song is ‘Woman’ which was written and performed by John Lennon from his 1980 album ‘Double Fantasy’. The track was chosen by Lennon to be the second single released from the Double Fantasy album, and it was the first Lennon single issued after his murder on 8 December 1980.
Lennon wrote "Woman" as an ode to his wife, Yoko Ono, and to all women. The track begins with Lennon whispering, "For the other half of the sky ...", a paraphrase of a Chinese proverb once used by Mao Zedong.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I dedicate today’s song to my niece, Kathryn Forde; daughter of my brother Peter and his wife Linda, Kathryn is in many ways a free spirit and wild roamer; someone who is always seeking out new places to travel to and explore. In many ways, Kathryn and my son, William who lives between Bali and Australia, are similar sides of the same coin who were born to different brothers. Both completed their university degrees long ago yet have extended the traditional ‘gap year’ many students of life have into a ‘gap decade’ as they travel to and around different countries. Kathryn has always been a free spirit. It has been lovely to watch her blossom and grow into womanhood over the years.
In many ways, Kathryn was largely responsible for me having visited and held over 2,000 (two thousand) story-telling assemblies in Yorkshire Primary schools between 1989 and 2002. I still recall Kathryn as a five-year-old who was so proud that her Uncle Billy had become an author, that she told her headmaster and he invited me to read from my first published children’s book to a school assembly of his pupils. My niece's school was the very first school I read in. In later years, as I became more well-known and established as a children’s author, I was able to bring the Earl and Countess of Harewood to Kathryn's school to read for them.
After visiting Kathryn’s school, things started to mushroom as I simply carried on being invited into schools to read to assembled children. And over the following 11 years, ( especially after the late Princess Diana and the South African President Nelson Mandela contacted me and praised my books), I was reading in school s all over Yorkshire, along with a stable of 860 famous names and celebrities who came from the realms of royalty, politics, church, film, stage, television, sport, and even space. I could go so far as to add ‘puppetry’ to the list of national and international celebrities who publicly read my books as the famous ‘Sooty’ once read from one of my books in a Batley school.
Life is sometimes funny, crazy; often a whirlwind that takes one to places one never imagined they might go. By the time one stops spinning, that phase of life has passed and a new stage of life has begun. That has been as true for my niece Kathryn every bit as much as it has been for myself. I am so glad, Kathryn, that whatever I have managed to positively achieve in my life since you were a spotty-faced snotty-nosed five-year-old in Primary School, that you proved to be the initial spark that set my world ablaze. I remain indebted to you and extremely proud of the beautiful woman you have turned out to be.
Sheila and I wish you a very happy birthday, Kathryn. May your day be filled with all the love and happiness you deserve. Have a beautiful and exciting life; you deserve it. Love you lots. Uncle Billy x
Love and peace Bill xxx