My interest in writing was kindled and influence by “Roald Dahl” in my opinion one of the best short story writers of all time.  I share with him a love of all things Aviation and military.

Roald Dahl was born September 13th 1916.  When he was 23 years old when the second world war broke out in Europe, he volunteered for the R.A.F. and was accepted for pilot training.  He eventually became a Spitfire pilot and such was his prowess as a pilot he became a fighter ace having shot down over seven enemy aircraft.

After the war Roald concentrated on his writing career publishing his first compilation of aviation short stories in 1946.  He carried on writing till his death in 1990.  His talents for writing was not limited to aircraft, he was a prolific writer of children’s books such as “Charlie and the chocolate factory” and “James and the giant peach” and “The railway children” to mention just a few.  He had his own T.V. series called “Tales of the unexpected” a huge success which ran for decades, and movie stars of the day were queuing up to take part in his T.V. series. [I have the theme tune from that series as a ring tone on my mobile phone! Sad but true]

The Christmas un-stoppable machine is nearly upon us I am going to tell a shortened version of Mr Dahl’s apparently true Christmas tale.

                                                                   The Shepherd.

The year was 1965 the place west Germany. Pilot Officer Steven Barnes was called into the Group captains office and told “Right Barnes I here your wife has just given birth to your son?” “Yes sir we are calling him Richard” the Group captain continued “Its Christmas eve and you have pulled duty pilot for the next 48hrs, now despite what you think of me I’ll tell you what your going to do”