Bill Forde has raised thousands of pounds for charity - all from the proceeds of his books. Isobel Fox finds out how he made the transition from probation officer to established children's author in the space of just ten years.

A NIGHTLY RITUAL of bedtime story-telling led to far bigger things for Bill Forde.

When his two children were young, there was nothing they liked better than to listen to dad telling them a bedtime story - and to guess the ending every time.

So in a bid to outwit them, Bill began to make up his own stories, and change the endings if they came anywhere near guessing what would happen.

And it was from here that Bill's talent for writing began to emerge.

Then an officer for the West Yorkshire Probation Service, Bill began to construct stories for himself, and, as part of his job, would go into schools in the district to tell them. Each of his tales was based on themes such as sexism, racism or bullying, and each had its own particular message to convey to the children, who listened to them in enraptured silence.

Hearing of Bill's success in the schools, bosses at the West Yorkshire Probation Office had an idea.

"They told me they'd be prepared to fund a book, so I took up the opportunity and wrote one," says 57-year-old Bill.

"The book was called Everyone and Everything and contained ten short stories on themes such as racism and bullying. The books were sold to schools and all the profits went to Children In Need."

In fact, a total of £5,000 was raised by the books, which proved to be a huge success with school children across the district.

From there, Bill's writing career began to snowball. "By the time I finished one book, there's always been another organisation waiting in the wings which has come forward to fund another one," says Bill, who lives in Mirfield.

"Now I've written a total of 24!"

All Bill's books are glossy, high-quality products, illustrated with pictures by local artists. Although they're all about different things, one strand is common to them all - all the proceeds are donated to charity.

Says Bill: "The themes of the books vary. They're about things I consider to be relevant to child development. In today's society, so many tensions can be created by parents separating, for example, or bereavement and loss which can impair the educational development and growth of youngsters. Bullying is also a big issue.

"A large part of what I do is telling those stories in school and encouraging children to become interested in reading and creative writing.

"I also try to encourage children to express their feelings as well as getting in touch with their writing talent."

Bill's latest project - which may also be his last - is a special collection of eight books to mark the millennium.

"When I started writing the books, I set myself a notional period of ten years' charity work, which comes to an end in the year 2000," says Bill.

"I wanted to do something memorable to mark the occasion so I spoke to schools in the area to see if anyone was willing to fund some books for the Millennium - something special for the children.

"I wanted to write on a variety of themes - in the end that turned out to be eight!"

Bill's collection includes titles such as Greed and the Robin and The Rubicelle Fusiliers. They tackle themes such as the horrors of war and the greed and material consumption of people who live in the most prosperous areas of the world.

"The majority of pupils in all the funding schools will get a free book to take home with them," says Bill.

"There'll be enough to raise £2,500 for charity afterwards, which is a nice way to round things off."

He added: "Writing's very stimulating and I've found it to be very satisfying. When I started off, it was by request, then I thought it would be a good way to raise money for charity.

"As the publications got better and better, I've been able to encourage children who would never usually read books to become interested.

"A good way to do this is to offer good quality books to schools which children wouldn't be able to buy anywhere else.

"I see writing almost as a crusade to encourage children to express their feelings and to get in touch with their writing talent."

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