Customer Reviews

The Shepherd And Other Christmas Stories: The Gift Of The Magi, The Cricket On The Hearth, Yes, Virginia There Is A Santa Claus, Hoodoo Mcgiggin And Christmas Cake Recipe

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While living in the Bay Area of California we were lucky enough to have a radio station that rebroadcast Canada's CBC radio station. "The Shepherd" read by Alan Maitland was a special on Christmas Eve for a number of years and we made sure to tune in each year. Living now in an area we cannot receive the broadcast we have bought the disk and now have our own tradition playing it for ourselves and friends on Christmas Eve. Makes a wonderful gift and stocking stuffer. Recommended highly.

Listening to "The Shepard" is a Christmas Tradition at our house. If anyone doesn't know the story, don't worry about it. Just buy it and listen. The story is good to start but the telling makes it even better. It sounds like an odd subject for Christmas, but, if you think about it, "A Christmas Carole" with three ghosts haunting someone has got to be unusual too. "The Shepard" is in the same genre and just as good.

In Canada people start calling the CBC in early December to ask when they will broadcast the story, "The Shepherd" read on the radio by the late Alan Maitland. I suspect that much of Canada was quiet the last half hour when they just played it on Radio One.
It is a tense & beautiful spirit/ghost story about a young RAF pilot lost over the North Sea on Xmas Eve.
I highly recommend it for its expert narration, as an event for the whole family to listen to, ages 10 & up, & as just a darn good story.

The rest of the stories, each w/a bit of irony or a bittersweet taste, are well done, too.