All Creatures Great and Small
Ratings21
Average rating4.4
Contains If Only They Could Talk and It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet The inspiration for the BBC series of the same name. Fresh out of Glasgow Veterinary College, to the young James Herriot 1930s Yorkshire seems to offers an idyllic pocket of rural life in a rapidly changing world. But from his erratic new colleagues, brothers Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, to incomprehensible farmers, herds of semi-feral cattle, a pig called Nugent and an overweight Pekingese called Tricki Woo, James find he is on a learning curve as steep as the hills around him. And when he meets Helen, the beautiful daughter of a local farmer, all the training and experience in the world can't help him... Since they were first published, James Herriot's memoirs have sold millions of copies and entranced generations of animal lovers. Charming, funny and touching, All Creatures Great and Small is a heart-warming story of determination, love and companionship from one of Britain's best-loved authors.
Series
Featured Series
7 primary books#1-2 in All Creatures Great and Small
All Creatures Great and Small is a 7-book series with 8 primary works first released in 1970 with contributions by James Herriot.
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This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader as part of a quick take catch-up post so I can catch up on my “To Write About” stack—emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness..
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I read this series back in junior high—I remember liking them, I remember eventually getting to the point that I wondered if mother cows/sheep/horses always had problems delivering, and...well, that's about it really.
I didn't remember how much drinking there was, or the interpersonal stuff between Herriot and the vet he worked for, or the silliness of some of the other interactions he had with people. Which is a shame—because that was just so much fun.
There were some really moving parts, too—I probably skimmed over them in my youth, but I enjoyed dwelling on them now.
This was a sweet book, and it's easy to see why people have been reading this series for years—and will probably continue to do so. I'm coming back for more as soon as I can.
Such a delight to read. Full of wit, fun stories, observed life lessons, and wisdom from the life of this young veterinarian in the Yorkshire Dales of 1930s England.
