The Shepherd: The thrilling number one bestseller from the master of storytelling

Product Information

This is a short simple story, following a pilot on his way home for Christmas and the misfortune he faces. The pilot thought Kavanaugh must have bought his old Mosquito with JK painted on it, still flew it on occasion, had seen a plane in distress and directed it to his old base. Before Joe left the room he told the pilot that Kavanaugh died on Christmas Eve, 1943, when he went down with his plane in the North Sea. I was first introduced to this story by Fireside Al from the CBC (although I'm not Canadian my upstate NY radio station carried 'As It Happens' which I loved!). Who doesn't love having a story read to them? And this reading is special. A treat for Christmas Eve.

The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth | Goodreads The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth | Goodreads

Every Christmas with one or two exceptions the CBC News show "As It Happens" has since 1979 played an audio recording of The Shepard. The lieutenant told him Joe, the mess steward, was preparing a room for him. Joe started a fire in the room’s fireplace, brought the pilot food, and stayed to talk. The mess steward said he worked at RAF Minton for twenty years. During the war there had been many young fliers, but the best one had been John Kavanaugh, who had had the room they were now in. The pilot walked over to a framed old photo of a young pilot beside a Mosquito with JK painted on its nose. Joe said that during the war, after the squadron had returned, John Kavanaugh would refuel his Mosquito and go out alone, searching for any crippled bombers to guide them home. But despite that and after some very anxious moments,his rescuer guides him to safety,waves in farewell and disappears.But who was he and where has the aircraft landed,just when it ran out of fuel ? Can he somehow be saved from his dire predicament ? Can someone guide him to safety ? It seems his prayers have been heard.A rescue aircraft appears,though it is of a slower,obsolete variety.It is a beautifully written novella.The prose is elegant and there is sustained tension .Forsyth would later turn to writing political thrillers,but for me,this is his best book. Book Genre: Adventure, Aviation, Christmas, Fiction, Historical, Historical Fiction, Holiday, Military Fiction, Mystery, Short Stories, Suspense, Thriller, War

The Shepherd - Frederick Forsyth - read by Alan Maitland from CBC Radio The Shepherd - Frederick Forsyth - read by Alan Maitland from CBC

So I had heard Alan Maitland's reading but had never read the story. Until now- and I'm glad I read it in print. I think Fireside Al's reading is edited somewhat and reading the unabridged story was much more intense and rewarding. A different sort of Christmas story but I recommend. The story has been broadcast "nearly every Christmas since 1979" in Canada on the CBC Radio One news programme As It Happens. [1] Read by Alan Maitland, the recording always airs on the last episode on or before Christmas Eve. In 2018, for the 50th Anniversary special of As it Happens [2] Carol Off, Michael Enright, and Tom Power celebrated the tradition of reading The Shepherd by reading lines from the story. Forsyth created this original work as a Christmas gift to his first wife Carrie after she requested a ghost story be written for her. Written on Christmas Day 1974, and published near that time a year later, the idea came while trying to think of a setting away from the typical haunted homes, and seeing planes flying overhead. Many have speculated references to preexisting RAF folklore. While Forsyth is a former RAF pilot and could have heard and adapted such a story (either with or without the intent to do so) no references or anecdotal evidence have been put forward to support such claims. The pilot did two turns of the triangle manoeuvre and waited. Nothing happened. Nobody came. Distraught at this point, all sorts of things go through his mind.

This is a really neat, short, exciting read that Julie and I read aloud to each other this evening. As it Happens' 50th anniversary edition". CBC Radio. CBC Radio One. 16 November 2018 . Retrieved 17 November 2018. Audio at about 32:30. On Christmas Eve 2016, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a new adaptation by Amber Barnfather for Between the Ears, performed by actor Luke Thompson. [3] Sound design was by David Chilton, with music and mouth/body percussion by the Saint Martin Singers specially recorded for the production at the church of St Giles in the Fields, and Vampire aircraft sound effects specially recorded at the Royal Air Force Museum London. Between the Ears: The Shepherd won a 2017 New York Festivals Radio Gold Award. [4] In April 2017, Between the Ears won the ‘Most Original Podcast’ Gold Award at the inaugural British Podcast Awards. [5]

The Shepherd (Short 2023) - IMDb The Shepherd (Short 2023) - IMDb

A. Bowdoin Van Riper (2004). Imagining flight: aviation and popular culture. Texas A&M University Press. pp.125–26. ISBN 978-1-58544-300-0. Started off as the last book for 2019, it became the first one for 2020 and what an amazing one it was! A masterfully written thriller which some modern authors can take notes from. Oh, and the radio adaptation featuring Alan Maitland as the narrator is top-notch too. A fine spectral yuletide story. Some writers who never work in the horror mode do rise to the occassion of the season and its literary tradition.In 2022, John Travolta confirmed that he is currently filming a cinematic version of The Shepherd on location in West Raynham, Norfolk. [6] See also [ edit ] He encounters a World War II era De Havilland Mosquito fighter-bomber and recalls that the meteorological squadron used the last of the Mosquitoes to prepare weather forecasts. The Mosquito’s pilot used hand signals to give the Vampire’s pilot flight commands. At one point the Vampire’s pilot sees the nose of the Mosquito, which had the letters JK painted on it. The son of a furrier, he was born in Ashford, Kent, educated at Tonbridge School and later attended the University of Granada. He became one of the youngest pilots in the Royal Air Force at 19, where he served on National Service from 1956 to 1958. Becoming a journalist, he joined Reuters in 1961 and later the BBC in 1965, where he served as an assistant diplomatic correspondent. From July to September 1967, he served as a correspondent covering the Nigerian Civil War between the region of Biafra and Nigeria. He left the BBC in 1968 after controversy arose over his alleged bias towards the Biafran cause and accusations that he falsified segments of his reports. Returning to Biafra as a freelance reporter, Forsyth wrote his first book, The Biafra Story in 1969. The Shepherd relates the story of a De Havilland Vampire pilot, going home on Christmas Eve 1957, whose aircraft suffers a complete electrical failure en route from RAF Celle in northern Germany to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Lost in fog over the North Sea, low on fuel, no working compass or radio, the pilot begins flying in small triangles, an odd flying pattern which would be detected on radar. An air traffic controller would be notified, and would send other aircraft to find him and "shepherd" (i.e. guide) him to Merriam St. George, the closest airstrip he was aware of. Oh dear.... Whilst Travolta is an aviation enthusiast (so can't be all bad ) he's all wrong for that role. If anything, his age should preclude him from that role.