FordeFables - Thought for Today

April 27th, 2018.

27/4/2018

Thought for today:
"I always remember a man called Colin who I worked with in Harrison Gardener's Dyeworks when I was in my late teens. Colin was a kind and generous person, a good farher and a faithful husband who loved his wife dearly. I will never forget him once telling me, 'I have loved my wife every day without fail since the day we married.We don't need expensive meals out and fancy holidays to keep our love solid and us both happy. All we need is lots of country walks and every day we awake to make sure that we fall in love with each other all over again'. Colin will be probably dead now as he was a good twenty years older than myself, but I never forgot his philosophy to keep love fresh and I decided to write this brief poetic memory:

'Fall in Love Again' by William Forde

'Let you and I go walking out together,
and renew our love over hills, verdant valleys, rugged moors and purple heather.

To see all of spring shine brightly in your eyes,
and to hear you speak words so simple, yet filled with meaning deep and wise.

To see your rainbow smile in dazzling sun and colourful rain,
is all I need to make me fall in love with you again.'

William Forde: Copyright: 27th, 2018.

April 26th, 2018

26/4/2018

"Look for beauty every day and in every way and you will find it all around you. Look for kindness in every touch and you will feel it where it matters. Look for good intentions in the deeds of others and you will see them act out before your eyes. Listen to the words of a friend's wisdom in your heart and you will hear it. Seek out the soul in every singer and their song will sound all the sweeter. Look no farther than family to find friends and support for life.

All you have to do is 'to do what's right' and all you need to be is 'to be yourself' to secure happiness, meaningful identity, personal satisfaction, and eternal redemption."
William Forde: April 26th, 2018.

April 25th, 2018.

25/4/2018

"My thoughts are presently on the springtime weather and sunny summer to come, given all the cold and rain we've experienced over previous months. The only satisfaction I have had during this inclement period has been to be grateful for not living in the wettest place in the whole of Great Britain; Manchester.

I am a lover of most paintings. One of our northern home-grown painters was Lowry, whose portrayal of the Salford and Manchester area over the years still fascinates me. It isn't his matchstick men that fascinates me, but more the scenes he never hardly painted that is peculiar to Manchester, more than any other city in the land.

Isn't it strange that given Manchester is renown for receiving the most bountiful of rainfalls each year, that from the hundreds of paintings that Lowry did, only one, 'The bus stop' depicts rain? Also, the figures in it are more lifelike than his matchstick men and dogs. It touches the height of my curiosity as to why such a Mancunian experience should be deliberately omitted from a lifetime of scenes from Salford and Manchester, and even makes me wonder if he had a second paid job with the Manchester Tourist Board? Let's face it, we all need a second job from time to time to get by!" William Forde: April 25th, 2018.

April 24th, 2018.

24/4/2018

Thought for today:
"Over the years since I became an author, I must have have given dozens of press interviews and have appeared on numerous local television and radio programmes. However seasoned an interviewee one becomes, often it is the simplest and most obvious questions put to one that leaves one thinking for a suitable reply. The most obvous questions are those that begin with 'W' such as, 'Why?...What?...Who?...When? or Where?'

I remember when ueen Elizabeth was pinning a medal on me, she asked, 'And what kind of books do you write Mr Forde. Somewhat stuck for a reply that seemed suitable for her royal personage I blurted spontaneously, 'Good ones, Maam.Good ones!'

During the 1990s, Jeffrey Archer was reading one of my books at a school in Slaithwaite, Huddersfield. This was a good number of years before his 4-year prison sentence in July, 2001 for perjury and perverting the course of justice for the lies he told at his libel action at the 1987 trial. At the time, despite Jeffrey being the country's 'best-selling' author, the press and literary circles were very derogatory about the quality of his literature and rarely a day went by without some press article putting the man and his work down.

Being in the public eye, Jeffrey's public reading of my book at thre school was covered by the press, local radio and the two local Yorkshire television stations. The 'Look North' television station had one reporter interviewing myself at the same time as 'Yorkshire Television' was interviewing Jeffrey. Being aware of certain interview techniques by that time, I was waiting for the 'surprise question' which is usually the one asked when the person thinks the interview has ended but the cameras are still rolling. As expected, the last question posed to me was the 'stinger'. 'There has been much publicity during the past few weeks , Mr Forde, about the quality of Jeffrey Archer's writing. How good a writer do you consider him to be?' I was asked.

With moments to respond I replied,' To tell you the truth, I couldn't say, as I must admit I've never read one of his books yet...(pause)...but I know that he has read one of mine this morning!'

Young children will always provide the most innocent and funniest answers of all. The late Richard Whiteley (television presenter of 'Countdown'), read for me on half a dozen occasions in Yorkshire schools during the 90s and early 2000s. Like another regular reader and television-presenter friend of mine, Geffrey Smith, from 'Gardener's World', these two men were firm favourites with the ladies. Whenever either read at a school for me, the place was packed to the rafters and more parents attended the reading assembly than they were children in the school. I don't know what these two men had in the charm department but I wish I could have bottled and sold it; I'd have made millions!

On the morning in question, Richard asked a six year old girl to come and sit next to him as he read from my book. He then addressed the young girl and asked,' 'Who's little girl are you?' before receiving the same answer as thousands of other adults have received in their time after posing that verey same question to one so young. As all the mums fawned and hung on every word spoken by the gently-spoken Richard Whiteley and waited for the girl's response, Richard's little helper coyly replied, 'My mummy's'.

Some press reporter once asked me twenty-eight years ago, 'What led to you becoming a writer, Mr Forde?' I didn't quite have my finger on the pulse at that time to know the answer then, but I know now, having had sixty-six books published since 1989/90.

It is because I like to remain in control of events. When you are a writer, you possess the power to say, 'This is how the story is going to end!' If only we each had the power to say that about the conclusion of our own lives?"William Forde: April 24th, 2018.

April 23rd 2018.

23/4/2018

Thought for today:
"When a feather falls to the ground and breaks the earth asunder, the Gods smile down upon mankind's fragility and inability to resist a higher force greater than themselves, however, light the substance. Was every person in the world to forcefully blow upwards at the descending feather, they would be unable to reverse gravity and the earth's natural pull and prevent it landing on the ground any more than they could pluck a feather from an angel's wing without the angel ever knowing.

Like a falsehood told in spite and malice that is intended to impugn reputation and character, once released, there is no telling where it will end up or the ultimate harm that will be done when the untruth finally comes to the ground.

Tread lightly when you speak about the character of others, for they too carry the fragility of potential slander by the mere utterance of a false word and suggestion of character assassination.

I wish that I could go back in time and take back any untruthful or uncharitable words I have ever spoken about another since I first spoke. If I could, I would willingly place any danger of ill-thought or slander against my own name instead of theirs and gladly suffer any pain or discomfort they felt instead, but sadly I know that I cannot. All I can now do is not to repeat the wrong to them or another in the future and hope to be forgiven for past trespass."William Forde: April 23rd, 2018.

April 22nd, 2018.

22/4/2018

Thought for today:
"For most of my life as a staunch socialist between the ages of 18 years and forty, you could have marked me as an ardent 'Republican' through and through. Had Oliver Cromwell still been around then, there would have been nothing square about my head and I would most certainly have joined his gang!

And yet, like millions of children who were reared in the 40's and 50's, I was brought up a 'Monarchist'. I even recall having been elected to sing 'In a Golden Coach lies a heart of gold riding through old London town' at a school concert when Queen Elizabeth the Second got crowned on June 2nd, 1953. This was about ten months before a horrific traffic accident that left me crippled for three years.

When I was growing up on Windybank Estate in West Yorkshire, I recall being one of many thousands of children waving little flags stood by the Liversedge roadside as the Queen passed by in her car from a distance. Even today, over sixty years on, I remember the smile she wore that day, especially as I saved the coronation mug that all English schools gave their pupils. It says something about us not being a throw-away society then, as such ceramic mementoes are still intact in their millions and can still be picked up at car boot sales for coppers, whereas little effort is devoted to preservation these days, not even marriage, the planet or life itself!

Little did I realise as a child, that one day in the years ahead that I would see that royal smile up much closer when I called around to her house to see her in the 1990s. It had earlier been indicated in a somewhat official letter to me by 'The Honours Committee' that she wanted to pin a medal on me. It was an MBE; that's one up from a 'Blue Peter Badge' for the uninitiated. Though my official letter of recognition was stuffy, I could never say that about the Queen's smile. It hadn't seemed to change since the first time I'd glimpsed it from afar some thirty years earlier.

Indeed, the more I think about things, how little I ever imagined as a child that one day I would have a number of brushes with royalty. I have been privileged in my time to have spoken with Princess Diana and Princess Margaret by phone, and to have had Princess Anne open a Disability Centre for me in Dewsbury by personal request. I also sat five rows behind the Queen and Prince Philip in 'Leeds Football Stadium' many years before my investiture; although on that occasion I could only see the back of their hands and heads as they waved and nodded their royal approval. I couldn't tell what they were mouthing at the time; it might even have been a Yorkshire pork pie they'd been scoffing as a snack to tide them over until lunch time.

Many years ago, the famous photographer, the late David Bailey, released an image of Her Majesty, who he described as having a mischievous smile. I can most certainly testify to that. The Queen is just one famous lady whom I have met who possessed 'a mischievous smile'.

Which leads me nicely to my investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace. As I approached the Queen to receive my gong, I initially wondered why she was stood on a platform two feet higher than mine, then I saw why. I was gobsmacked by Her Majesty’s lack of height, so much so that when she politely asked, 'What kind of books do you write Mr Forde?' the only reply I could muster was, 'Good ones, Maam, good ones!' ( Maam rhymes with jam when addressing a monarch correctly).

As the Queen gave me a straight-faced glance with a look that reflected confusion instead of amusement, I could sense one of the Beefeaters behind her raise his axe in anticipation of her next command as he moved forward three paces. Suddenly that royal ‘We are not amused’ look suddenly changed as her lighter side began to emerge. The royal face softened, the majestic cheeks widened and the Queen laughed: not smiled as protocol decrees, but palpably laughed! It may have been the quiet mischievous laugh of a reserved lady and not the raucous outburst of a ‘Barnsley belly-busting bride who pulled a decent chap to marry her before the baby arrives', but a royal laugh it was nevertheless. I’ve got it on video and photographs to prove it. Isn't life strange when all the water has been drained from the cooking pot and we can all find a bit of the royalist somewhere in the bottom of our Wellington boots!

Another occasion that humoured me greatly was when John and Norma Major invited me and my ex-wife down to 'Number 10' for afternoon tea. I joke not; it really happened, and it wasn't one of those two-minute flying visits as part of some larger party. We were there alone with the Majors for two hours with Norma and one hour with the Prime Minister, her husband John. They were the nicest couple one could possibly meet. I could not believe that a busy Prime minister would take the time to give a stranger from West Yorkshire a guided tour around 'Number 10' just because he approved of my book themes and charitable awareness issues. When the PM showed me the 'Cabinet Room' and the famous Cabinet table around which many momentous decisions have been made over the centuries, I was thrilled to bits. I was gobsmacked, however, when he showed me the most prominent chair at the centre of the oval-shaped table where the Prime Minister sat. Naturally, the chair was one up from the others to distinguish the higher ranking of the occupant. 'Would you like to sit in it, Bill?' the PM asked, reading my thoughts. I had always thought his father to have been a trapeze artist and not a mind reader. I sat down and anchored my bottom firmly as I imagined that William Pitt and others had issued many silent farts from that position before humble little me. As we passed Walpole's desk, my childish devilment led me to stick a piece of chewing gum beneath it. I wonder if it's still there?

As we were escorted up the famous staircase with photographs of every Prime Minister arranged in staggered formation from bottom to the top of the stairs, Norma proudly recited each one by name since Sir Robert Walpole, who was the first Prime Minister between 1721-1742, graced the Office. The wall was filled completely and at the very last photo was of the previous incumbent, Margaret Thatcher. Norma obviously held no love for her and even called her 'Maggie'. She pronounced her surname with the precision of an elocution venom as she uttered, 'Thatcher', making sure that it rhymed with 'Milk snatcher!' Then Norma remarked in an unguarded moment, 'If she thinks she is snatching the last place at the top of the stairs for her photograph, she can think again; John's going there, not being pushed around the corner!'

As me and my ex-wife Fiona sat in their upstairs lounge having a light tea, the Prime Minister asked me if I was cold and did I want the fire stoking. I took my opportunity, thinking that my mining father would turn in his grave had I not and replied, 'No thank you, I'm not cold, but all the rest of Yorkshire is since you completed that which Margaret Thatcher started and closed down the remaining pits!' To his credit, John Major took the comment on the chin and took no offence. His wife did though. In her previous half a dozen letters to me she had always called me 'Bill', but after that exchange with her husband in which I'd dared to criticise part of his political action, it reverted to 'Mr Forde' in the next letter, and I also found myself struck off her Christmas card list. She did later read one of my books in a school in her husband's constituency, but our future relationship was never quite as close and the same as it once appeared.

One of the few women I almost became 'too friendly' with was the late Anita Roddick. We were like-minded people in so many ways. Had we not both been married at the time, we could easily have become more attracted to each other. I recall in the 90s when we marched 2,000 children from the Huddersfield railway station to the 'Huddersfield Town Hall' where we held an 'Our World' event with all the Kirklees schools in attendance to celebrate Anita's environmental work, my own book entitled 'Our World', and also to present a song I had written and produced to Anita called 'Our World' (which can be accessed below). This was the only occasion when I've been given council approval to hold up the traffic for a half-hour march through the centre of Huddersfield. Anita was one of the friendliest, earthiest women I have had the pleasure to meet and I liked her presence enormously. She was attracted to my work because of its charitable and educational aspects. When she died in 2007, she left her entire £51million fortune to charity in her will. God bless you, Lass. This is the song that I wrote and produced and presented to her that day, and which over 2,000 Kirklees school children sang to her in the Town Hall. The music was composed by the late John Foyle of Batley.
http://www.fordefables.co.uk/uploads/1/0/1/5/10153721/04_our_world.mp3

So, however humble one is born, strange things can happen in one's life and anyone can meet all manner of folk, both great and good; and some like Queen Elizabeth, Norma Major and Anita Roddick with a lot of devilment in them lurking at the back of their mind. As my mother often said, 'Even a cat can look at a Queen.'

I'll end now as that's enough name dropping for one post." William Forde: April 22nd, 2018.

April 21st, 2018

21/4/2018

"My son William's life in Australia has altered significantly over the past two to three years. Like myself in my younger life, he was always a rebel, his own man who seemed determined to find a way of life that suited him and the values he believes in.

I recall after he married in Poland seven years ago, how he and his Polish bride returned to Australia where they had previously resided and for the first time in his life, he started to adopt a more conventional lifestyle. I'll never forget him telling me over the phone that just because he now had a house, wife and a suited-and-booted job, 'I feel like I've sold out to the consumerist society.' I told Will, (his preferred name) not to beat himself up too much about having settled down into a more normal lifestyle because we all 'sell out' at that time in life 'when the price is right!'

I explained that in my view it is a natural part of growing from idealistic youth into more cynical/realistic adult to change one's political perspective from extreme left towards extreme right as one gets older and, not to do so, usually signifies one 'being stuck in the past and failing to change with the times.'

Part of me has always suspected deep down that the reason why many people turn to Religion in older years is that it allows one to continue to preach socialist principles whilst practising Conservative ways, and thereby settling into a new and more comfortable type of hypocrisy. We're a strange old breed, aren't we?

Anyway, over the past three years, our Will decided categorically that such a conventional lifestyle, philosophy and set of beliefs wasn't for him and he became what many would probably describe as a 'New Millennium Hippy', but without the drugs I'm glad to say (As far as I'm aware).

Sadly Will and his wife's relationship wasn't meant to be and they parted and divorced. Over the past two years, Will abandoned the modern lifestyle that Australia has to offer and has opted for the simple life, along with Josefine, his partner of like mind. They have travelled across Australia spreading their style of Yoga. This Yoga business of theirs, along with house babysitting all over the world while the house owners holiday, plus any other type of work that comes their way, enable them to eat healthily and travel and live in their camper van. The totally of what they own and possess can be carried in a rucksack. Just as I recall reading what the philosopher Aristotle once remarked as he went through the marketplace, 'I never knew there were so many things in the world that I neither needed nor wanted.'

As for politics, I think there is no left or right for him today; if anything he is apolitical. However, where he and Churchill, Thatcher and a few others are distinctly alike, he has learned how to stick two fingers up at the world! All in all, he's just another rebellious Forde through and through, though less conventional and less hypocritical in the process than the rest of us!" William Forde: April 21st, 2018.

April 20th, 2018.

20/4/2018

Thought for today:
"Today is the birthday of my firstborn James, who lives in France with his wife and two children. James is the second from the left in the photo of my four boys. We all remember our own children in different ways for a vast variety of reasons.

When James was starting Primary school, I and his mother separated and he was brought up by his mother. At the time of separation, I charged him, being the first born, to look out for his younger brother Adam. Having been brought up the eldest of seven children, while such a request seemed perfectly natural to me, I realised in later years that it was far too onerous a responsibility for a father to place on one so young. To his credit, until Adam came to live with me some eight years later in his early teens, James did look out for his brother. Looking back son, this was too much to ask of a young child, but in doing it, you demonstrated the calibre of the adult you grew up to be.

Today, you are a success in your job, you are happily married and have parented two beautiful children, Sam and Jessica. I wish you a happy birthday son on this your special day and if you have a good look at all my sons, (James is the second from the left), you'll be able to clearly see where all your good looks come from, given that I'm the only 'constant' in the equation as there was more than one mother involved.

When James and his younger brother Adam were very young and I used to tell hem bedtime stories before they went to sleep, James would always guess the ending. That was when I decided to abandon their book and I started to tell them stories about a fictitious fox called 'Sleezy'. Now, when smarty-pants James guessed the ending, I simply snookered him by changing it.

In later years when I became a children's writer of some acclaim, one of my first story successes that the late Princess Diana used to read to her children at bedtime was the 'Sleezy the Fox' stories. She had heard about the theme of the book which is 'second chances' and wanted to acquaint the young Princes, William and Harry with this theme and stories. I often think amusingly that James was probably responsible for my becoming a children's author initially and that he and his brother were acquainted with the 'Sleezy Fox' stories before a future King of England had them read to him by his mother.

Anyone can freely hear these four stories about 'Sleezy the Fox' by simply accessing my website through the link below:
http://www.fordefables.co.uk/sleezy-the-fox.html

Enjoy your 44th birthday, James, and never forget that your old dad loves you deeply, always has and always will. Love Dad xxx : William Forde: April 20th, 2018.

April 19th, 2018.

19/4/2018

"We humans are the only creatures on the face of the earth who are capable of being 'inhuman.' We are unknowingly often greater hypocrites than we realise.

How many of us are well fed while others starve and with enough change in our purse to provide food and water to another person? What happens in our lives that causes our humanity to chip away and allows our heart to go cold on us without warning that the flames of compassion are dying out? What enables us to sometimes express feeling without touch, rationality without reason, vision without insight, and leads us to know without knowledge?

However good we are, however rich or poor, we all have far more possessions than we ever need or is good for us. We accummulate things without realising how much we are cluttering up our lives with things. We are presently having the house rewired when we are away on our European holiday and need to pack every item and place in storage for around seven weeks. The packing made me realise just how many things I didn't need and we started to declutter. We have probably given away a third of our possessions to needy friends and charity shops, but I forgot how good it makes one feel to give away things one really loves to have about them. It frees us a bit from the material addiction we are all prone to.

Having felt this recent good feeling, I am determined to declutter at least once a year now, if the good Lord grants me another year to re-experience the act.

What are we; man or beast; a source for good or evil? I believe that we have the capacity to be the type of arm wrestler we want to be."William Forde: April 19th, 2018.

April 18th, 2018

18/4/2018

"The saddest irony of life is that the fewer one has, the more precious they become; whether it be hen's teeth, days left to live, unfulfilled dreams or treasured memories from the past. When I was young, My mother would often tell me, 'Billy, look after what you have because few of us know what we have until it's gone!' She was so right.

The experiences that constitute my happiness are my memories of growing up with my parents and siblings, and looking after my own children in their youth and sharing in their pleasures; plus my marriage to Sheila.

We need to enjoy these experiences to the full while they are still there to be enjoyed because once the real experiences have passed, time will fade, making the objective emotions of the time, subjective feelings in memory." William Forde: April 18th, 2018.