If you are Canadian, and of a certain age, you will recognise the voice of our storyteller in the link below (if you care to listen or download). Neither as folksy as Garrison Keillor, nor as reassuring as Walter Cronkite, Alan Maitland had a sharp & adroit delivery - almost impatient. He could carry off a series of characters with ease, framed in tones that went from a bluster to a whisper. Along with a colleague, Alan McFee, Maitland was a veteran broadcaster and a CBC mainstay for decades post war, and lent his voice to many productions in our little Dominion.
Frederick Forsyth is probably known by most as a writer of international thrillers like The Day of the Jackal. For Canadians at Christmas though, it was The Shepherd. The combination of Forsyth's story and Maitland's narration has become a Canadian classic. Forsyth wrote the story for his wife on Christmas day, 1974. It was first broadcast on As It Happens, a CBC current affairs show, in 1979. It's no cosy Hallmark bit of heartwarming, but a stratospherically chilly reminder that we need, from time to time, someone to guide us home.
Listen or download here: The Shepherd read by Alan Maitland
and .. Happy Christmas.
2 comments:
How lovely. Holiday traditions... they vary so, and are such a comfort. Thanks for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed! I have a nagging suspicion that Joe and Johnny were in cahoots!?
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