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It began as a joke. Two days before Christmas in 1974, bestselling novelist Frederick Forsyth\u2019s first wife Carole was hunting through the cupboards in their bedroom, hoping to find her present. But after ransacking every shelf and coming up empty-handed, she turned to her husband in exasperation, wondering if he had purchased her anything.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019d bought her a diamond ring, but it was in my pocket,\u201d Forsyth laughs. \u201cMockingly, I said: \u2018I\u2019m so sorry, I forgot to buy you anything.\u2019 She was rather miffed, and said: \u2018Oh, well, write me a ghost story then.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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And so, almost 50 years ago, was born one of the most beloved Yuletide ghost stories since Charles Dickens penned A Christmas Carol. \u201cIn one sitting, I think it was Christmas Eve afternoon, I just wrote it, then gave it to her the next morning wrapped with a pink ribbon around it \u2013 and the diamond ring.\u201d The story was published the following year, coming in the wake of Forsyth\u2019s blockbuster three first novels, The Day Of the Jackal, The Odessa File and The Dogs Of War. Though short by comparison, the novella has remained a firm favourite ever since.<\/p>\n
Today Forsyth, 85, a veteran former Daily Express columnist who has sold 70 million books in more than 30 languages and had 12 of his stories adapted for film, has seen the haunting mystery of The Shepherd finally brought to life in a movie starring John Travolta and streaming on Disney+.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe Shepherd is quite a simple story,\u201d explains Forsyth, from his home in Buckinghamshire. \u201cA young pilot flying back from Germany to Britain on Christmas Eve 1957 has a total and catastrophic electrical failure which knocks out all his radios and his compasses. Bad enough \u2013 but then he finds below him the landscape is covered in thick fog and he is going to die because he cannot find his way down.\u201d<\/p>\n
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When all seems lost in the darkness above the North Sea, a Second World War aircraft emerges from the clouds to guide the young pilot \u2013 like Forsyth, named Freddie \u2013 to a safe landing\u2026 with a ghostly twist. He is the eponymous \u201cshepherd\u201d of the book\u2019s title.<\/p>\n
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Having long nurtured childhood dreams of flying, Forsyth joined the RAF aged 17 \u2013 the youngest enlisted pilot \u2013 and after two years earned his wings in 1957. He flew the twin-boomed de Havilland Vampire jet which becomes the mechanically-plagued death-trap that stars in The Shepherd, but left when RAF brass refused to guarantee that he would be given command of a frontline Hunter jet fighter.<\/p>\n
Don’t miss… <\/strong> Frederick Forsyth was the world\u2019s first rock star writer<\/strong><\/p>\n Travolta, who stars as the veteran pilot guiding the beleaguered Freddie, played by Ben Radcliffe, had long hoped to film The Shepherd.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The star of Saturday Night Fever and Grease is a seasoned pilot himself, with his own Boeing 727, three Gulfstream jets, a Bombardier Challenger 601, a Dassault Falcon 900, and an Eclipse 500. He had acquired a vintage Vampire jet in 1989 and recalls: \u201cI instantly fell in love with this book. It had been my dream to one day make it into a film.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Bringing it to the screen has been a labour of love for the veteran actor. He first purchased the film rights to The Shepherd more than 30 years ago, but recalls: \u201cRight after Pulp Fiction I was doing one movie after another. After ten years I just let it go and decided I was never going to get to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In an incredible twist, Travolta suffered his own mid-air electrical fault that left him fearing death.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI actually experienced a total electrical failure, not in a Vampire but in a corporate jet over Washington D.C. prior to discovering the book,\u201d he says. \u201cSo when I read the book, it resonated more because of this experience I\u2019d personally had. I knew what it felt like to absolutely think you\u2019re going to die.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBecause I had two good jet engines but I had no instruments, no electric, nothing. And I thought it was over, just like this boy, portrayed so beautifully [by Ben Radcliffe]. He captured that despair when you think you\u2019re actually going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The Grease actor added: \u201cI had my family on board and I said, \u2018This is it, I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m going to die in this plane\u2019.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThen, as if by a miracle, I descended as per the rules to a lower altitude, I saw the Washington D.C. monument and identified that Washington International Airport was next to it. Then made a landing, just like the boy in the film. So I was reading the book saying: \u2018I lived this\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n