| The Shepherd | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Frederick Forsyth |
| Cover artist | Lou Feck |
| 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 | 0-670-63969-9 |
| OCLC Number | 2437079 |
| Dewey Decimal | 823/.9/14 |
| LC Classification | PZ4.F7349 Sh3 PR6056.O699 |
The Shepherd is a 1976 novella by Frederick Forsyth.
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 and low on fuel, he is met and led (or 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.
His attempts to find a rational explanation for his eventual rescue prove as troublesome as his experience. 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. The Vampire pilot also learns that Kavanagh disappeared over the North Sea in his Mosquito on his last mission, on Christmas Eve 1943, exactly fourteen years before.
Forsyth created this original work as a Christmas gift to his wife after she requested a ghost story be written for her. Written on Christmas Day 1975, 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 was 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.
Beginning in 1979 the story has been broadcast each year on the Christmas Eve edition of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Radio programme As It Happens, read by the late Alan Maitland. (Note that the show is broadcast Monday-Friday, and so the Christmas Eve edition may not fall on Christmas Eve.) The reading is also available on the CBC's "As It Happens" website.