"The Snow Goose"
by Paul Gallico

This is the story about Mr Philip Rhayader, a deformed but kind and talented man who lived in 1930. He buys a lighthouse and the surrounding land on the Essex coastline. His hobbies are to paint birds and lots of natural animals in their habitat.

He generally only visits the village of Chelmsbury once a fortnight to buy his food supplies other than that he is cut off from the rest of civalisation. He has hunchback and a withered, claw like hand and this makes people frightened of him, but he is a sensitive and gentle man and understands their fear. Although no-one befriends him please begin to learn that he is kind to wounded creatures and takes care of them.

Then one day a young girl, frightened and dirty, nervously brings a wounded white goose and asks for help to make the bird better. Fritha, the young girl was wary and and a little frightened of Ryayader and she was also fascinated watching him care for the goose and bring him back to health.

Then, in 1940, a year after the start of the 2nd world war some news reached Mr Rhayader that the British service men are trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk in France and also that the German forces are attacking them from the planes in the air and from all sides. The British government were using radios to call for help and who had a boat to cross the channel between England and France and rescue as many people as possible. Dispite Fritha begging him not to go, Philip Rhayader took a boat out on this desperate mission. The now healthy snow goose circles over head on his journey. Philip repeatedly picks up stranded men from the beaches and ferries them to waiting ships that took them back to the safety of England. The wounded men look at the snow goose and like its an angel of mercy. Sadly, sometime during Philip's rescue mission he is gunned down and killed and for a while the snow goose circles over his head forbidding anyone to come near him. Eventually when the boat sinks the goose flies off.

Fritha stays and lives at the lighthouse for while and cares for the birds sadly hoping that Philip will return one day but he never does. She finds a picture of herself that Philip has painted when she first brought the snow goose to him. The snow goose returns to the lighthouse for a while but flies away again. Fritha knows that Philip won't return now.

As the story goes on, each day she continues to visit and feed the birds until one night a German bomber drops a bromb on the lighthouse and blows it in to oblivion.

In time the sea corrodes and the land around the lighthouse becomes very derelect. when Fritha returns as a grown women there is noting to see but desolation and the seagulls swooping overhead. This is where the story ends.

About the author...

Paul Gallico was born in America on the 26th of July 1897 and was of Italian and Austrian descent.

He started his career as a sports writer but "The Snow Goose" made him a well known world wide and it was written in 1941. He wrote many books after that and eventually died after living through two world wars on 15th July 1976.