The Shepherd
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| The Shepherd | |
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| Author | Frederick Forsyth |
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| Cover artist | Lou Peck |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
| Publication date | September 30, 1976 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 123 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-670-63969-9 |
The Shepherd is a 1976 novel by Frederick Forsyth, but is actually a well-known Royal Air Force story from considerably earlier.
The Shepherd relates the story of a De Havilland Vampire pilot, going home on Christmas Eve 1957, whose aircraft suffers a complete electrical failure over the North Sea en route from RAF Celle in northern Germany to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Lost in fog and low on fuel, he is shepherded to a disused RAF dispersal field by the pilot of a De Havilland Mosquito fighter/bomber of World War II vintage, who has apparently been sent up to guide him in.
However, some time after he lands at the airfield - the fictional RAF Minton - he learns that his saviour was Johnny Kavanagh, a wartime RAF pilot who had been stationed at Minton and who had guided crippled bombers home; he disappeared over the North Sea in his Mosquito on his last mission, on Christmas Eve fourteen years before.
The story is broadcast each year on Christmas eve on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Radio programme "As It Happens", read by the late Alan Maitland.
