We asked Bill about his book, and why he decided to tell his story.
Future Pathways supported Bill to write a book about his life. He worked with The Book Whisperers to do this. The Book Whisperers are one of our Delivery Partners.
Bill is from the north of Scotland and speaks in the ‘Doric’ dialect that is common there. The book is written in the same dialect. Even if you’re not familiar with Doric, you can still understand the book. It’s called ‘Tellin’ It Like It Is: ma life on and aff the rails’. Bill chose this title because for many years he worked as a train driver.
Bill had often thought about writing a book and when he said this to his Support Coordinator, she told him about The Book Whisperers. Bill says:
“I thought: ‘Why not?’, so Future Pathways put me in touch with Katie at The Book Whisperers, and it just went from there. I told them what I wanted in the book – my own words. It’s my story.”
Bill met with Katie online, over a few months, to tell his story. He has had an interesting life, starting on a farm in Aberdeenshire.
“I’m 72 now, and I’ve lived a good life. I’m a country boy, born and bred. Born on a farm, and all the kids at school were farmers’ kids. When I was 7 years old I’d take the cows in for milking every morning, and milk them myself. The farming then was a lot different to what it is now. Then it would take 6 or 7 men to run a farm. Now one or two can do it.”
So what inspired Bill to write the book?
“The book is my whole life story, from start to finish. I don’t know what people will like about it – that’s up to them. Everything in the book is God’s honest truth. Nothing made up at all. I’ve never done that in my life, and I’m not going to start now. It’s all in there – including the swear words! I don’t just tell people what they want to hear. I tell it like it is.”
Bill now has quite a lot of serious health problems, but this hasn’t changed his approach to life or his sense of humour.
