From Charles Dickens to M.R. James, Christmas has a long association with ghost stories. In The Shepherd – part of Disney+’s festive fare for this year – we have an evocative addition to the genre.
Based on a short story by acclaimed thriller writer, Frederick Forsyth, and set in 1957, The Shepherd explores the links between flight and the spectral.
As Forsyth explained in the forward to a new edition of the story, it was written as a gift to his wife “in a single afternoon” on Christmas Eve 1974. It draws on his first-hand experiences as a Royal Air Force (RAF) National Service pilot during which he had flown the Vampire.
