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'The Shepherd' from Canada


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#1 David Birchall

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Posted 25 December 2012 - 03:16

I think the followers of this forum will excuse me for posting something that has nothing to do with racing and everything to do with Nostalgia. Every Christmas Eve in Canada for over thirty years the country comes to a standstill to listen to Alan Maitland read "The Shepherd" by Frederick Forsyth. I thought I would share it with you:

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=j2_bLEqmBi0
 


Edited by David Birchall, 24 December 2013 - 18:24.


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#2 Emery0323

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Posted 25 December 2012 - 04:55

I think the followers of this forum will excuse me for posting something that has nothing to do with racing and everything to do with Nostalgia. Every Christmas Eve in Canada for over thirty years the country comes to a standstill to listen to Alan Maitland read "The Shepard" by Frederick Forsyth. I thought I would share it with you:



Thank you for posting this link!

Being from the US, I first heard this story only a few years ago on the CBC while on a long-distance drive to be with the family on Christmas Eve.
It is unusual in the way it is both chilling and moving at the same time, and it really stuck in my mind.

Making the same drive tonight, I was disappointed that I missed it, but here is a link to hear it! Thanks again.

#3 David McKinney

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Posted 25 December 2012 - 11:31

Never heard it before, but a good use of half an hour on Christmas morning :)
Thanks for posting the link :up:

#4 D-Type

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Posted 26 December 2012 - 09:39

Thanks for posting it. :up:
I listened to it a day late - last thing on Christmas Day, unwinding before bed.



#5 RonPohl

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Posted 28 December 2012 - 04:55

Wonderful. Thank you David.

#6 RonPohl

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Posted 28 December 2012 - 04:55

Wonderful. Thank you David.

#7 275 GTB-4

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Posted 28 December 2012 - 07:32

A lovely Christmas piece :up:

#8 DJH

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Posted 29 December 2012 - 11:07

Thanks for posting the link, entertaining yarn and very nice to listen to the reader.

#9 David Birchall

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Posted 24 December 2013 - 18:24

I thought we might as well make this a Tradition!



#10 PCC

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Posted 24 December 2013 - 21:13

I thought we might as well make this a Tradition!

Wonderful idea, thank you David!



#11 Snakedriver

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Posted 24 December 2013 - 23:52

Wonderful,

 

Played it for my crew.  Im a helicopter EMS pilot pulling duty with 3 others.  My Co-pilot and I are both retired military officers.  Our hanger is co-located at a small Navy ramp at an airport along the coast...Just to paint the picture... :)

 

Leo



#12 David Birchall

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Posted 24 December 2014 - 18:46

I think the followers of this forum will excuse me for posting something that has nothing to do with racing and everything to do with Nostalgia. Every Christmas Eve in Canada for over thirty years the country comes to a standstill to listen to Alan Maitland read "The Shepherd" by Frederick Forsyth. I thought I would share it with you:

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=j2_bLEqmBi0



#13 David Birchall

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Posted 25 December 2015 - 02:05

Anybody bored with it yet? We are about to listen to it again in Canada.
Merry Christmas TNFers!

#14 David Birchall

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Posted 25 December 2016 - 01:33

TNFer PCC emailed to remind me of this Canadian tradition:

 

 

Merry Christmas to all!



#15 ron54

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Posted 25 December 2016 - 10:27

BBC Radio 3 did a different adaptation of this last night.....complete with engine noises & occasional choral accompaniment. Somebody obviously put a lot of time and effort into it but I'm not 

too sure if it came up to the original.

 

Anybody else listen to it or just................ 



#16 RS2000

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Posted 26 December 2016 - 16:05

Yes. I tend to agree the music added nothing and by airing it on R3 (justified by having music?) rather than R4 it probably missed much of the target audience. I originally read the (rather thin) book before I ever heard it on radio.

As we tend to on here, I found I was looking for errors this time around. Forsyth did not always have the background knowledge he is credited for. I am still struggling to think of an RAF Met Flight using Mosquitos and then Canberras based at any Gloucester airfield (the MoD Met Research Flt had a Canberra but that was different, non-RAF, organisation). If creating a fictional destination, why make it sound so like a real potential period one - Middleton St George? Can't get free of the vision that landing at a disused airfield in Norfolk would inevitably end in ploughing into a large shed full of Bernard Matthews turkeys. 



#17 David Birchall

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Posted 26 December 2016 - 18:54

Frederick Forsyth was interviewed on CBC following the Christmas Eve broadcast.  He said that while he had piloted Vampires across the North Sea he had never personally experienced, nor was he aware of anybody else experiencing, the type of events in his story (i.e. system failures).  "It is what might have happened, but never did" to paraphrase his description of writing the story.  A nice bit of entertaining fiction that perhaps, we shouldn't study too closely-rather like some other books around Christmas...


Edited by David Birchall, 26 December 2016 - 20:33.


#18 ron54

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Posted 26 December 2016 - 19:17

RS....Thank you for your reply I was beginning to think I was the only one who listened in.....The book was set in 1957 which was perhaps prior to Mr Matthews starting to use the deserted airfields in which case F.F. may not have been too far out at that time..    



#19 David Birchall

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Posted 24 December 2017 - 21:03

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!



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#20 2F-001

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Posted 24 December 2017 - 22:39

I seem to have missed this thread for the entirety of its (now) five-year lifeā€¦ until now.
Possibly Forsyth's most different and least known work (except in Canada, it seems) - but a nice reminder to revisit it. Thanks.

There's another version, read by Robert Powell (a better-paced reading, I think, to be honest):


Edited by 2F-001, 25 December 2017 - 08:15.


#21 David Birchall

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Posted 25 December 2018 - 01:26

Is anybody tired of this yet?

 

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night.



#22 Manfred Cubenoggin

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Posted 26 December 2018 - 12:26

Tired of it?  Nope.

 

https://www.cbc.ca/r...pherd-1.4950854



#23 David Birchall

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Posted 25 December 2019 - 02:56

Merry Christmas to all and I hope you still enjoy this!



#24 Bob Riebe

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Posted 25 December 2019 - 03:14

Godspeed and Merry Christmas to all!

#25 David Birchall

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Posted 25 December 2020 - 03:21

Here we are a year later.  I recently started rereading a book by  a WW2 pilot that I had met not very long ago-Colin Downes,  He flew Spitfires and Mustangs in WW2, then Hornets, then Mustangs and F86 Sabres in Korea.  Quite a history of flying!

His book is called "By the Skin of My Teeth" and I recommend it to flying buffs and to air combat fans in particular. He spent the last years of his life in this town of Tsawwassen where I live in British Columbia, Canada.  I am afraid I don't recall what brought him here but fate is a strange thing,  isn't it?

https://www.goodread...kin-of-my-teeth

 

Edit: He also flew Vampires which was the whole point of mentioning him...


Edited by David Birchall, 25 December 2020 - 18:24.


#26 David Birchall

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Posted 25 December 2021 - 03:29

Here we are again.  Tonight I recalled my own father's time in the RAF in WW2.  He was an air gunner-he spent many, many hours searching the North Atlantic for UBoats until one night in 1941 his aircraft encountered and sunk U452.  HMS Vascama was later involved but not in the sinking of the uboat.  We are fortunate to have avoided this time.

 

 

Merry Christmas everyone!



#27 PCC

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Posted 28 December 2023 - 15:58

Wondering if David Birchall (or anyone else here) has seen (or is planning to see) this:

 

 

I know David will bristle at the 'brought to life for the first time' claim....


Edited by PCC, 28 December 2023 - 15:59.


#28 Bloggsworth

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Posted 28 December 2023 - 17:08

Saw it, it was OK, but then, I think I read it decades ago.