In what has become a tradition for me, I present one of my favorite radio plays, The Shepherd written by Frederick Forsyth and read by Alan Maitland on CBC radio.
Frederick Forsyth wrote the Shepherd in 1972 as a gift for his wife Carrie after she requested a ghost story be written for her. The entire story was written on Christmas Day 1974, and published near that time a year later.
CBC radio produced this version of the story for Christmas eve 1979. It has been rebroadcast every year since.
This has become a tradition for me. As long as I’ve been posting online, I’ve published some version of The Shepherd every Christmas day. The Shepherd, a Christmas ghost story, was written by Frederick Forsyth. This one is read by Al Maitland of the CBC in 1979.
It follows an RAF Vampire pilot on a trip from Germany to England. En-route, his plane has a major electrical malfunction and encounters bad weather. He is rescued from his predicament by the ghost of a WWII Mosquito pilot and his plane.
In what has become a tradition with this editor, we give you the annual Christmas eve presentation of The Shepard by Alan Forsyth as read by CBC’s Alan Maitland. I sincerely hope you enjoy this story as much as I do.
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 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.