Alan Maitland (February 13, 1920 – February 11, 1999) was a Canadian radio broadcaster. He was a longtime host for CBC Radio , starting as an announcer in 1947 and was later cohost of As It Happens from 1974 to 1993. He was also part of the administration of CBC Radio for a brief period in 1958 between assignments as an announcer.
37-511: The Shepherd is a 1975 novella by British writer Frederick Forsyth . The Shepherd relates the story of a De Havilland Vampire pilot flying home from RAF Celle in northern Germany to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk on Christmas Eve 1957, when his aircraft suffers a complete electrical failure mid-flight. Lost in fog over the North Sea , low on fuel, with no working compass or radio,
74-410: A 1982 collection of four novellas, notes the difficulties of selling a novella in the commercial publishing world, since it does not fit the typical length requirements of either magazine or book publishers. Despite these problems, however, the novella's length provides unique advantages; in the introduction to a novella anthology titled Sailing to Byzantium , Robert Silverberg writes: [The novella]
111-453: A late-night telephone call to RAF Merriam St. George and learns that no local pilots were authorized to fly that foggy evening, which meant that the air traffic control tower had not been staffed: no one had been sent out to shepherd him to safety. He then calls the meteorological squadron and is told they had scrapped the outdated Mosquitoes three months previously. At a loss for answers, the pilot rationalizes that someone must have bought one of
148-584: A literary genre began developing in the Italian literature of the early Renaissance , principally by Giovanni Boccaccio , author of The Decameron (1353). The Decameron featured 100 tales (named novellas) told by ten people (seven women and three men) fleeing the Black Death , by escaping from Florence to the Fiesole hills in 1348. This structure was then imitated by subsequent authors, notably
185-542: A literary genre structured by precepts and rules, generally in a realistic mode . At that time, the Germans were the most active writers of the novelle (German: "Novelle"; plural: "Novellen"). For the German writer, a novella is a fictional narrative of indeterminate length—a few pages to hundreds—restricted to a single, suspenseful event, situation, or conflict leading to an unexpected turning point ( Wendepunkt ), provoking
222-403: A logical but surprising end. Novellen tend to contain a concrete symbol, which is the narrative's focal point. The novella influenced the development of the short story and the novel throughout Europe. In the late 19th century Henry James was one of the first English language critics to use the term novella for a story that was longer and more complex than a short story, but shorter than
259-403: A novel. Dictionaries define novelette similarly to novella , sometimes identically, sometimes with a disparaging sense of being trivial or sentimental. Some literary awards have a longer "novella" and a shorter "novelette" category, with a distinction based on word count . Among awards, a range between 17,500 and 40,000 words is commonly used for the novella category, whereas 7,500–17,500
296-482: A novel. In English speaking countries the modern novella is rarely defined as a distinct literary genre, but is often used as a term for a short novel. A novella generally features fewer conflicts than a novel , yet more complicated ones than a short story . The conflicts also have more time to develop than in short stories. Novellas may or may not be divided into chapters (good examples of those with chapters are Animal Farm by George Orwell and The War of
333-547: A novella, but the panel for the Man Booker Prize in 2007 qualified the book as a "short novel". Thus, this "novella" was shortlisted for an award for best original novel. A similar case is found with a much older work of fiction: The Call of the Wild (1903) by Jack London . This book, by modern standards, is short enough and straightforward enough to qualify as a novella. However, historically, it has been regarded as
370-424: A separate "best novelette" award, separately from "best short story" or "best novel". The distinction between these categories may be entirely by word count . Alan Maitland In his "Fireside Al" segments on As It Happens and other CBC programs ("Frontporch Al" in summer time), Maitland frequently read short stories, some of which he also published in book form. Some "Fireside Al" segments continue to air on
407-537: 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 is 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. The story has been broadcast "nearly every Christmas since 1979" in Canada on
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#1732771884464444-438: Is actually at RAF Minton, which has not been an operational station for years, and instead currently functions as a storage depot. With the stores clerks being on Christmas leave, only the flight lieutenant and a 70-year-old civilian mess steward were on duty at the time of the plane landing. When the flight lieutenant heard a low flying plane he had turned on the runway lights, which had never been disconnected. The pilot makes
481-585: Is an example of a title naming its genre. This might be suggestive of the genre's historicization. Commonly, longer novellas are referred to as novels; Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899) are sometimes called novels, as are many science fiction works such as H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1897) and Philip Francis Nowlan's Armageddon 2419 A.D. (1928). Less often, longer works are referred to as novellas. The subjectivity of
518-413: Is commonly used for novelettes. According to The Writer , a novelette is approximately between 7,000 and 20,000 words in length, anything shorter being considered a short story. This list contains those novellas that are widely considered to be the best examples of the genre, through their appearance on multiple best-of lists. Some literary awards include a "best novella" award and sometimes
555-422: Is one of the richest and most rewarding of literary forms...it allows for more extended development of theme and character than does the short story, without making the elaborate structural demands of the full-length book. Thus it provides an intense, detailed exploration of its subject, providing to some degree both the concentrated focus of the short story and the broad scope of the novel. In his essay, "Briefly,
592-579: The CBC Radio One news programme As It Happens . Read by Alan Maitland , the recording always airs on the last episode on or before Christmas Eve . In 2018, for the 50th Anniversary special of As it Happens Carol Off , Michael Enright , and Tom Power celebrated the tradition of reading The Shepherd by reading lines from the story. On 14 December 2014, actor Nigel Anthony performed an original adaptation by Amber Barnfather of The Shepherd , with music and sound effects, at St Clement Danes ,
629-545: The Canadian Broadcasting Company’s legendary Alan Maitland, the production was scored and produced by two-time Peabody Award-winning Greg R. Barron . The adaptation features authentic field recordings, including Viper cockpit interior sound from BBC archives. On Christmas Eve 2016, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a new adaptation by Amber Barnfather for Between the Ears , performed by actor Luke Thompson . Sound design
666-742: The Central Church of the Royal Air Force, in London. The performance, in aid of the RAF Benevolent Fund , was introduced by Frederick Forsyth . Sound design was by David Chilton, with a cappella pieces from the Saint Martin Singers. On March 30, 2016, an acoustic adaptation of the original story, entitled "The Shepherd — Retold" was published online at http://sounddawg.net . Based on the original reading by
703-614: The English word news . Merriam-Webster defines a novella as "a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel ". There is disagreement regarding the number of pages or words necessary for a story to be considered a novella, a short story or a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association defines a novella's word count to be between 17,500 and 40,000 words; at 250 words per page, this equates to 70 to 160 pages. See below for definitions used by other organisations. The novella as
740-627: The French queen Marguerite de Navarre , whose Heptaméron (1559) included 72 original French tales and was modeled after the structure of The Decameron . The Italian genre novella grew out of a rich tradition of medieval short narrative forms. It took its first major form in the anonymous late 13th century Libro di novelle et di bel parlar gentile , known as Il Novellino , and reached its culmination with The Decameron . Followers of Boccaccio such as Giovanni Fiorentino , Franco Sacchetti , Giovanni Sercambi and Simone de' Prodenzani continued
777-487: The Italian novella , originally meant "any of a number of tales or stories making up a larger work; a short narrative of this type, a fable", and was then many times used in the plural, reflecting the usage as in The Decameron and its followers. Usage of the more italianate novella in English seems to be a bit younger. The differentiation of the two terms seems to have occurred only in the 19th century, following
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#1732771884464814-412: The Worlds by H. G. Wells ), and white space is often used to divide the sections, something less common in short stories. Novellas may be intended to be read at a single sitting, like short stories, and thus produce a unitary effect on the reader. According to Warren Cariou , "The novella is generally not as formally experimental as the long story and the novel can be, and it usually lacks the subplots,
851-419: The case for the novella", Canadian author George Fetherling (who wrote the novella Tales of Two Cities ) said that to reduce the novella to nothing more than a short novel is like "insisting that a pony is a baby horse". The sometimes blurry definition between a novel and a novella can create controversy, as was the case with British writer Ian McEwan 's On Chesil Beach (2007). The author described it as
888-517: The days of Boccaccio." In 1902, William Dean Howells wrote: "Few modern fictions of the novel's dimensions…have the beauty of form many a novella embodies." Sometimes, as with other genres, the genre name is mentioned in the title of a single work (compare the Divine Comedy or Goethe 's Das Märchen ). Austrian writer Stefan Zweig 's Die Schachnovelle (1942) (literally, "The Chess Novella", but translated in 1944 as The Royal Game )
925-588: The inaugural British Podcast Awards. On 13 March 2022 Back Garden Films released a 33 minute animated short based on the novella. The short was directed, written (screenplay), animated and, I presume, voiced by Stephen Parker. In 2022, John Travolta confirmed that he was filming a cinematic version of The Shepherd on location in West Raynham, Norfolk. The Shepherd premiered at the HollyShorts Film Festival on August 10, 2023, and
962-635: The meteorological squadron had used the last of the Mosquitoes to prepare weather forecasts. The Mosquito’s pilot uses hand signals to give the Vampire’s pilot flight commands. At one point the Vampire’s pilot sees the nose of the Mosquito, which has the letters JK painted on it. The pilot follows the Mosquito, and when the Vampire's fuel gauge reaches zero the Mosquito pilot gives hand signals to indicate
999-430: The multiple points of view, and the generic adaptability that are common in the novel. It is most often concerned with personal and emotional development rather than with the larger social sphere. The novella generally retains something of the unity of impression that is a hallmark of the short story, but it also contains more highly developed characterization and more luxuriant description. The term novel , borrowed from
1036-400: The new fashion of the novella in German literature. In 1834, John Lothrop Motley could still speak of "Tieck's novels (which last are a set of exquisite little tales, novels in the original meaning of the word)". But when the term novella was used it was already clear that a rather short and witty form was intended: "The brief Novella has ever been a prodigious favorite with the nation…since
1073-419: The old Mosquitoes, happened to be flying on Christmas Eve, saw a plane flying in small triangles, and led it to the storage depot, which had the closest airstrip. The flight lieutenant tells him that Joe, the mess steward, is preparing a room for him. Joe starts a fire in the room’s fireplace, brings the pilot food, and stays to talk. The mess steward reveals that he worked at RAF Minton for twenty years. During
1110-408: The oncoming runway and clearance to land. Suddenly, runway lights are powered on through the fog and the pilot is able to land the Vampire, with the plane running on empty. Expecting the standard protocol of a fire truck, ambulance and other vehicles to be sent out immediately following an emergency landing, he instead encounters a car driven by an older flight lieutenant . The pilot is informed that he
1147-456: The parameters of the novella genre is indicative of its shifting and diverse nature as an art form. In her 2010 Open Letters Monthly series, "A Year With Short Novels", Ingrid Norton criticizes the tendency to make clear demarcations based purely on a book's length, saying that "any distinctions that begin with an objective and external quality like size are bound to be misleading." Stephen King , in his introduction to Different Seasons ,
The Shepherd - Misplaced Pages Continue
1184-417: The pilot begins flying in small triangles, an odd flying pattern which would typically be detected on radar, with the intention of notifying an air traffic controller to send other aircraft to find him and "shepherd" (i.e. guide) him to Merriam St. George, the closest airstrip he is aware of. While making these maneuvers he encounters a World War II era De Havilland Mosquito fighter-bomber and recalls that
1221-499: The service, still flew it on occasion, had seen a plane in distress and directed it to his old base, but before Joe leaves the room he tells the pilot that Kavanaugh died on Christmas Eve, 1943, when he went down with his plane in the North Sea. Forsyth created this original work as a Christmas gift to his first wife Carrie after she requested a ghost story be written for her. Written on Christmas Day 1974, and published near that time
1258-467: The tradition into the early 15th century. The Italian novella influenced many later writers, including Shakespeare . Novellas were also written in Spain. Miguel de Cervantes ' book Novelas ejemplares (1613) added innovation to the genre with more attention to the depiction of human character and social background. Not until the late 18th and early 19th centuries did writers fashion the novella into
1295-493: The war there had been many young fliers, the best among them John Kavanaugh, who had once occupied the room they were now in. The pilot walks over to a framed old photo of a young pilot beside a Mosquito, with JK painted on its nose. Joe reveals that during the war, after the squadron had returned, John Kavanaugh would refuel his Mosquito and go out alone, searching for any crippled bombers to guide them home. The pilot assumes Kavanaugh must have bought his old Mosquito after leaving
1332-627: Was by David Chilton, with music and mouth/body percussion by the Saint Martin Singers specially recorded for the production at the church of St Giles in the Fields , and Vampire aircraft sound effects specially recorded at the Royal Air Force Museum London . Between the Ears: The Shepherd won a 2017 New York Festivals Radio Gold Award. In April 2017, Between the Ears won the ‘Most Original Podcast’ Gold Award at
1369-420: Was released through Disney+ on December 1, 2023. Novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels , but longer than most novelettes and short stories . The English word novella derives from the Italian novella meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts. The Italian term is a feminine of novello , which means new , similarly to
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