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 |
| Released | 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 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.
When he lands at the base, however, he learns that his saviour was Johnny Kavanagh, an RAF pilot who guided the pilots of crippled bombers home, who disappeared over the North Sea in his Mosquito on his last mission, on Christmas Eve fourteen years before.
The story was 'read' each year around Christmas on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Radio programme "As It Happens" by the late Alan Maitland.
