James Herriot

Herriot, James. All Things Bright and Beautiful. London: Pan Books.1978

Darrowby comes alive with its green hills, rolling farms, animals and people as James Herriot, the veterinary surgeon talks of his early practice there in a collection of short stories. A classic Coverley Papers by itself.

Each story is heartwarming and Herriot's humour is never far behind to make it all lively and real. He laughs at his own inability to hold a few mugs of brown ale, beer and scotch and to hold a ball at a cricket match as it fell from the heavens straight into and out of his hands.

The stories are a peek at a slowly changing pastoral scene - before the War. The modernity of veterinary practices had not evolved - this is dung, wet noses, uterine entrails, animal deliveries, castrations, colic, ringing bull noses, healing ulcers, emphysema, TB, lockjaw etc in the raw. But the one thing that stands out is, however gory, bloody or sickening the scene, Herriot infuses it with a sense of wonder, tenderness and warmth.

Each story is a gem - the drunk Harold, Tom, the city returned young man determined to make a success of farming, the chirpy Cliff, the Mr.Pickergill whose mauls English with his 'semolina' for 'salmonella', 'rectrum' for 'rectum', 'labrador' for 'laboratory', 'bled a lot from his biblical cord, didn't 'e?' etc , the sprightly Siegfried, the talented Tristan, the ghost walker, the nosy parker Mrs.Donovan, the vagrant Pip, Granville, who always held his own when it came to drinks, the cricket matck in the Darrowby vicarage, the straight talk of the farmers, the brood of Dimmocks whose dog Bonzo becomes Herriot's professional challenge, Sam his dog and the long line of his grateful and ungrateful animal patients...

What a kaleidoscope! I savoured each page of the book which made for such good reading pleasure in the midst of murders, crimes, betrayals, mafias, pedophiles, sex, political intrigues, philosoply, spiritual quests and all other possible scenarios in books that we read, this was a whiff of pure, rejuvenating, oxygen filled, clean and fresh air.

Here's some interesting information from the web:

Trivia: Herriot's old veterinarian practice is still run by his son, James Alexander Wight. The veterinarian's daughter, now a physician in Thirsk, thought the original book should have been called "Ill Creatures Great and Small."
Fictional places we love: Darrowby of 'All Creatures Great and Small'
John FlinnRead more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/28/TREVRQEBS.DTL#ixzz0XDRPZmtL