Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,480
edits
The Shepherd (novella): Difference between revisions
Wikipedia no longer has a spoiler-filled synopsis
mNo edit summary |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (Wikipedia no longer has a spoiler-filled synopsis) |
||
| (8 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{work|wppage=The Shepherd}}
{{Workstub}}
{{Infobox book
| title = The Shepherd
| image =
| caption =
| author = Frederick Forsyth
| central theme =
| elevator pitch = Christmas Eve, 1957: An RAF pilot just wants to get home to spend the holiday with his family, but his jet develops electrical trouble over a fog-bound North Sea. His only hope to survive the night, let alone get home, is that somebody notices him on radar and sends up a guide aircraft to bring him in - a "shepherd."
| genre =
| publication date = 1975
| source page exists =
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
Christmas Eve, 1957: An RAF pilot just wants to get home to spend the holiday with his family, but his jet develops electrical trouble over a fog-bound North Sea. His only hope to survive the night, let alone get home, is that somebody notices him on radar and sends up a guide aircraft to bring him in - a "shepherd."
[[Frederick Forsyth]]'s [[novella]] '''''The Shepherd''''' was originally a Christmas gift to his wife in 1974, which was published by Hutchinson in 1975. Then it was read on-air on the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]] Radio program ''[[As It Happens]]'' in 1979, and the story became a Christmas tradition.
{{Unmarked Spoilers}}
{{tropelist}}
{{Needs More Tropes}}
* [[Just Plane Wrong]]: A minor case. The protagonist flies a de Havilland Mosquito out of RAF Celle on Christmas Eve 1957. The RAF stopped stationing Mosquitos at Celle in 1950, and returned Celle to German control on 29 November 1957.
** The cover of the first printing of the story shows a de Havilland Venom - while that isn't the aircraft in the novel, it ''was'' the aircraft model that the RAF had based at Celle in 1956-1957.
* [[No Name Given]]: The protagonist.
* [[Twist Ending]]: It wouldn't be a Frederick Forsyth story without one. In this case, it concerns the shepherd's identity.
* [[Write What You Know]]: Frederick Forsyth was an RAF Flying Officer before becoming a writer.
Line 17 ⟶ 31:
* {{spoiler|[[Christmas Ghost Story]]: The shepherd of the story died during [[World War II]], trying to shepherd another aircraft home on Christmas Eve.}} The reveal serves as the story's [[Wham! Line]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Literature of the 1970s]]
[[Category:Novella]]
[[Category:Prose Fiction]]
| |||