I loved reading James Herriot books when I was a kid, but I’d never read this one. Picked it up from the library the other day and devoured it. James Herriot’s anecdotes of animals and the human beings who love them and take care of them are heartwarming as usual, illustrative of all the foibles of humankind, and full of wide-eyed appreciation of the beauties of the English countryside. It’s also interesting for a look at the tension between traditional methods of veterinary science and the new-fangled, more scientific, methods that were coming out after World War II such as antibiotics. Ironically for a book of vet stories, I liked a story with no animals best – one about his son Jimmy at his first piano recital. I won’t say what happened, but it’s worth picking up the book for.

I would say that this book isn’t quite as good as the ones I read when I was small (the prequels to this, which were published in the US as All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Creatures Great and Small and All Things Wide and Wonderful I believe. My books had different (British) titles). Despite this, though, it’s well worth reading if you want to fly away to the idylls of the Yorkshire country and a simpler time and people.