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    Tales From Portlaw Volume One: 'The Love Quartet'
    Tales From Portlaw Volume One: 'The Love Quartet'
    Tales From Portlaw Volume One: 'The Love Quartet'
    Ebook116 pages1 hour

    Tales From Portlaw Volume One: 'The Love Quartet'

    By William Forde

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    About this ebook

    I was born in Portlaw, County Waterford and came to West Yorkshire, England at the age of 4 years, where I have lived ever since. As I grew up, my mother used to tell me tales of Portlaw. Being a natural-born Irish person with a healthy imagination, she was also a natural-born storyteller. Consequently, I have no way of knowing how truthful the recall and re-telling these stories were and was pulled in opposing directions in how best to write them.

    I eventually decided to use the medium of fiction. In my website, the section entitled, ‘Tales from Portlaw’, I recount the stories that my mother told me all the years I was growing up in West Yorkshire about ‘the old country’ across the Irish Sea. I have taken the ‘germ of truth’ in her stories and have made that detail the central thread of my story, adding to her truth, my fiction, through the extended use of my writer’s imagination. Any resemblance to anyone who ever lived or came from Portlaw in either name, likeness or character description is purely co-incidental; and to the best of my knowledge, this story is purely fictional.

    ‘The Love Quartet’ is a book of four romantic stories that include, ‘The Tannery Wager’, ‘Fini and Archie’, ‘The Love Bridge’, and ‘Forgotten Love’. All four stories are a mixture of ‘love won’, ‘love lost’ and ‘love found’.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilliam Forde
    Release dateFeb 20, 2017
    ISBN9781370689545
    Tales From Portlaw Volume One: 'The Love Quartet'
    Author

    William Forde

    William Forde was born in Ireland and currently lives in Haworth, West Yorkshire with his wife Sheila. He is the father of five children and the author of over 60 published books and two musical plays. Approximately 20 of his books are suitable for the 7-11 year old readers while the remainder are suitable for young persons and adults. Since 2010, all of his new stories have been written for adults under his 'Tales from Portlaw' series of short stories. His website is www.fordefables.co.uk on which all his miscellaneous writings may be freely read. There are also a number of children's audio stories which can be freely heard.He is unique in the field of contemporary children's authors through the challenging emotional issues and story themes he addresses, preferring to focus upon those emotions that children and adults find most difficult to appropriately express.One of West Yorkshire's most popular children's authors, Between 1990 and 2002 his books were publicly read in over 2,000 Yorkshire school assemblies by over 800 famous names and celebrities from the realms of Royalty, Film, Stage, Screen, Politics, Church, Sport, etc. The late Princess Diana used to read his earlier books to her then young children, William and Harry and Nelson Mandela once telephoned him to praise an African story book he had written. Others who have supported his works have included three Princesses, three Prime Ministers, two Presidents and numerous Bishops of the realm. A former Chief Inspector of Schools for OFSTED described his writing to the press as 'High quality literature.' He has also written books which are suitable for adults along with a number of crossover books that are suitable for teenagers and adults.Forever at the forefront of change, at the age of 18 years, William became the youngest Youth Leader and Trade Union Shop Steward in Great Britain. In 1971, He founded Anger Management in Great Britain and freely gave his courses to the world. Within the next two years, Anger Management courses had mushroomed across the English-speaking world. During the mid-70's, he introduced Relaxation Training into H.M. Prisons and between 1970 and 1995, he worked in West Yorkshire as a Probation Officer specialising in Relaxation Training, Anger Management, Stress Management and Assertive Training Group Work.He retired early on the grounds of ill health in 1995 to further his writing career, which witnessed him working with the Minister of Youth and Culture in Jamaica to establish a trans-Atlantic pen-pal project between 32 primary schools in Falmouth, Jamaica and 32 primary schools in Yorkshire.William was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1995 for his services to West Yorkshire. He has never sought to materially profit from the publication of his books and writings and has allowed all profit from their sales (approx £200,000) to be given to charity. Since 2013, he was diagnosed with CLL; a terminal condition for which he is currently receiving treatment.In 2014, William had his very first 'strictly for adult' reader's novel puiblished called‘Rebecca’s Revenge'. This book was first written over twenty years ago and spans the period between the 1950s and the New Millennium. He initially refrained from having it published because of his ‘children’s author credentials and charity work’. He felt that it would have conflicted too adversely with the image which had taken a decade or more to establish with his audience and young person readership. Now, however as he approaches the final years of his life and cares less about his public image, besides no longer writing for children (only short stories for adults since 2010), he feels the time to be appropriate to publish this ‘strictly for adults only’ novel alongside the remainder of his work.In December 2016 he was diagnosed with skin cancer on his face and two weeks later he was diagnosed with High-grade Lymphoma (Richter’s Transformation from CLL). He was successfully treated during the first half of 2017 and is presently enjoying good health albeit with no effective immune system.

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      Book preview

      Tales From Portlaw Volume One - William Forde

      ‘Tales from Portlaw’

      Volume 1

      ‘The Love Quartet’

      by

      William Forde

      Copyright © 2016 William Forde

      Published by William Forde

      February 2017

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return it to Smashwords.com or your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Author’s Foreword

      ‘The Tannery Wager’

      ‘Fini and Archie’

      Introduction

      Part One: ‘Archie Swales is Born’

      Part Two: ‘Employment and Courtship’

      Part Three: ‘From Single to Married and Farm Hand to Farmer’

      ‘The Love Bridge’

      Part One: ‘Portlaw Ways’

      Part Two: ‘Charles Marie, Botanist’

      Part Three: ‘The Riddle is Solved … or is it?’

      ‘Forgotten Love’

      Part One: ‘Two Men, One Choice’

      Part Two: ‘Marriage and Breakup’

      Part Three: ‘Lost Love’

      Part Four: ‘Amy’s Marriage’

      Author’s Background

      Other Books by this Author

      For the General Audience

      Romantic Drama Strictly for Adults

      Connect with William Forde

      Author’s Foreword

      I was born in Portlaw, County Waterford and came to West Yorkshire, England at the age of 4 years, where I have lived ever since. As I grew up, my mother used to tell me tales of Portlaw. Being a natural-born Irish person with a healthy imagination, she was also a natural-born storyteller. Consequently, I have no way of knowing how truthful the recall and re-telling these stories were and was pulled in opposing directions in how best to write them.

      I eventually decided to use the medium of fiction. In my section entitled, ‘Tales from Portlaw’, I recount the stories that my mother told me all the years I was growing up in West Yorkshire about ‘the old country’ across the Irish Sea. I have taken the ‘germ of truth’ in her stories and have made that detail the central thread of my story, adding to her truth, my fiction, through the extended use of my writer’s imagination. Any resemblance to anyone who ever lived or came from Portlaw in either name, likeness or character description is purely co-incidental; and to the best of my knowledge, this story is purely fictional.

      ‘The Love Quartet’ is a book of four romantic stories that include, ‘The Tannery Wager’, ‘Fini and Archie’, ‘The Love Bridge’, and ‘Forgotten Love’. All four stories are a mixture of ‘love won’, ‘love lost’ and ‘love found’.

      William Forde: December 2016.

      ‘The Tannery Wager’

      It is often said that it is only the very best of friends who possess the capacity to turn into the worst of enemies. This is a story about two boys who were born in the Village of Portlaw on the very same day of life; Tom Lannagan and Jimmy Johnson. During their childhood, Tommy and Jimmy might well have been twins in the eyes of any stranger who didn’t know them as they were rarely seen apart. Even when a boy or girl called around to Tommy’s house to see if he was playing out, more often than not they’d find Jimmy there also, and likewise if they called to Jimmy’s house.

      For ten full and happy years, Tommy and Jimmy remained the closest of pals imaginable, until the day came during their eleventh year when their friendship was ruptured, never to heal again. In fact, from their eleventh year onward, Tommy and Jimmy became the most bitter of enemies ever to come out of Portlaw and the surrounding County of Waterford.

      ~~~~~

      When both boys grew up and sought employment, like all the other people in Portlaw who looked for local work, they each secured a job with the main village employer; the Tannery Works.

      Tom Lannagan was a fine strapping man of 23 years of age, whereas his one-time friend Jimmy had a masculine build but was less muscular. The Portlaw Tannery provided work and wages for every man who worked in the village. The Tannery was situated at the top of the Village Square and commanded a monopoly over the workers of Portlaw. Apart from three public houses, the Post Office and two general stores; if one went to work in Portlaw, one went to work in the Tannery!

      Every morning, the people of Portlaw could set their clocks with the sound of the Tannery hooter. The first hoot of the day from the Tannery announced it was 7.25 am and that work would be scheduled to start in five minutes precisely. Another loud hoot would sound at noon to announce lunch break and again at 12.25 pm to call the workers back to their jobs. Then at 5.20 pm, the Village Square, which had but moments earlier been empty, would gradually fill up with children waiting at the tannery gates to meet their fathers or other family members who worked there. At 5.30 pm precisely, a final three hoots of the day would sound to announce that the day’s work shift had ended and home time had arrived once more.

      With the exception of Friday evenings, the workers leaving the Tannery at the end of their day’s work would be met by their children while their women folk remained at home preparing the evening meal of spuds and cabbage for their menfolk.

      Fridays however, was much different. On Friday evenings at 5.30 pm when the weary men came through the gates, they’d always be met by their wives and sweethearts along with Paddy Doherty, the local moneylender. You see, Friday was payday, and if the women didn’t relieve their men of their unopened pay packets before they had the opportunity to ‘have a quick one in the pub’, there’d be many a fine row that night and the poor tannery worker might well end up sleeping among Willie Low’s flock of sheep.

      It was December 22nd, around 5.20 pm. Outside, the ground was covered with a thick blanket of snow and the rooftops of the old terraced properties that stood sentry on both sides of William Street were weighted down with all the snow that had lodged there over the past week. Two men were shovelling some of the excess snow off house roofs onto the ground below.

      Being a Friday evening, 84 women from ‘William Street’ left their houses and walked up the street towards the Village Square and gathered outside the Tannery Works. They were joined by 64 women from ‘Brown Street’; some of whom brought their retired fathers with them for the outing. ‘William Street’ and ‘Brown Street’ made up the bulk of Portlaw dwellings. As the women passed the houses on either side, the sagging roofs of the old dwellings seemed to acknowledge their passing with a mark of respect, as they appeared to bow and curtsy at their centre.

      Within the Tannery worked the two men who had been adversaries since their school days; Tom Lannagan and Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy had been the one who’d insisted upon the maintenance of an uneasy peace between them for the past thirteen years. He’d never forgiven Tom Lannagan for having been responsible for his first public humiliation, when he’d been thrashed with a cane in front of the entire class. Jimmy vowed that he would never forgive him.

      Jimmy would be at Tom’s throat at every conceivable opportunity of every working day. Indeed, it often appeared that the highlight of Jimmy’s day would be to ‘better Tom’, if at all possible and to do something that might spoil Tom’s day.

      The cause of their enmity was twofold: a good thrashing that a nun had given Jimmy Johnson at school thirteen years earlier and the fact that they had both fancied the same colleen; the village beauty, Teresa Fitt. However, despite having been the first to propose marriage to Teresa, it had been Tom who the Portlaw colleen eventually picked and subsequently married after she’d declined Jimmy’s offer. This act merely intensified the sense of grievance that Jimmy Johnson developed towards Tom over the years.

      The happier Tom and his wife, Teresa, seemed to be, the

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