Paul William Gallico (July 26, 1897 – July 15, 1976) was an American sports writer turned novelist and fiction writer. He gained fame for his touching human stories, with many of his works adapted for motion pictures.

His masterpiece was ‘The Snow Goose’. A short book that has been translated into just about every major language in the world. It has been in continual print and set to music and poetry many times. In 2010 the BBC asked the public which story they would most like to hear re-recorded and the Snow Goose was the favorite choice.

A timeless legend of wildlife, humanity, love and sacrifice that uses every emotional appeal in the box and achieves it, due to its wonderful and poetic writing style.

Paul William Gallico (July 26, 1897 – July 15, 1976) was an American sports writer turned novelist and fiction writer. 

He gained fame for his touching human stories, with many of his works adapted for motion pictures.

His masterpiece was ‘The Snow Goose’. A short book that has been translated into just about every major language in the world. It has been in continual print and set to music and poetry many times. In 2010 the BBC asked the public which story they would most like to hear re-recorded and the Snow Goose was the favorite choice.

This timeless legend of wildlife and love uses every emotional appeal in the box and gets away with it due to its wonderful and poetic writing style. One must have a heart of stone not to be affected by this story.

The Snow Goose story was the unexpected result of a meeting between the young Peter Scott and Paul Gallico at a world skating competition.

Peter told him about his lighthouse out on the lonely mashes of the Wash; about wildfowling and his sailing boat Havelle. Also of his work as an artist and increasing love of, and growing desire to protect all wildlife. He told him of a wild pink-footed goose ‘Annabelle’ that had flown in one year to reside with his domestic goose collection and that had then returned in following years after autumn migration. Later, there was his experience of evacuating troops from the beaches of Dunkirk at the outbreak of the Second World War.

These threads were woven by the master story teller into ‘The Snow Goose’ and although he moved the story to a fictitious location and pink-footed goose ‘Annabelle’ became ‘Princess’, the Snow Goose, the parallels are obvious. Paul Gallico, in the ‘Snow Goose’ story describes the location as ‘Desolate, utterly lonely and made lonelier by the calls and cries of the wildfowl that make their homes in the marshlands and saltings’.

The Snow Goose is a simple, short story written about the regenerative power of friendship and love, set against the horror of war.  It covers the growth of a friendship between Phillip Rhayader, a disabled artist, living a solitary life in an abandoned lighthouse far out on the lonely marshes, and of a young local girl, Fritha.  Fritha finds the Show Goose wounded by a gunshot out on the marshes and although frightened by his disabilities, knows that only Rhayader has the skills to heal it and brings it to him.  They decide to call the snow goose Princess.  As Princess heals, their human friendship blossoms in tune with the annual migration and return of the snow goose. With the outbreak of war, Rhayader, disabled though he is, can at last can use his skills to help rescue the troops pinned down and under fire on the Dunkirk beaches. He takes his small sail boat into the shore where the bigger boats cannot go and ferry's troops out to them, all the time accompanied by Princess the snow goose.  Fritha anxiously awaits their return and comes to realise that she loves Rhayader. One day Princess alone returns and circles in the sky far above her and the lighthouse before leaving forever and with that, she knows that Rhayader has died and Princess was Rhayader's soul taking farewell.

Warning - make sure you have a ready supply of tissues before reading this book because it is a definite but uplifting weepy!     

Paul Gallico’s love of The Snow Goose story apparently meant that he would not permit it to be made into a film. The BBC finally persuaded him to do so by offering famous actors, Jenny Agutter and Richard  Harris. Although many love the result, Paul Gallico was apparently dismayed and wouldn’t authorise it to be shown again. A poor quality copy can be seen on YouTube but the budget does appear to have been spent on the two famous actors and this was produced for  television rather than as a fully fledged film click here

Peter Scott was unaware that the book had been written but eventually met up with Paul Gallico and it was agreed that Peter would illustrate the UK editions of The Snow Goose. His painting of ‘Fritha’ shows her standing in the lighthouse kitchen doorway with the river Nene in the background. For a model, he used his first wife, Elizabeth Jane Howard (later of literary fame). She apparently had to stand for hours holding a pillow when she modeled for the painting. The lighthouse he painted perfectly matches photographs he himself took of the East Bank Lighthouse in 1934. 

The Snow Goose was re-printed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in 2016. Copies can be obtained from them by contacting XXXXXXXXXX