- The Good: Cozy heartwarming adventures of a country veterinarian
- The Bad: Simple stories with only a loose plot that may not be for everyone
- The Literary: Based on the true-life experiences and memories of James Alfred Wight
Freshly graduated, veterinary surgeon James Herriot leaves London and takes a post in the Yorkshire Dales in the practice of country vet Siegfried Farnon. It’s the 1930s, war is on the horizon, and the practice of veterinary medicine is not established, particularly in the English countryside.
This classic bestseller is so charming and cozy, and it’s no wonder there are multiple film and television adaptations. These short episodic stories are the memoirs of a real-life veterinarian, what he called his “cat and dog stories.” That was an oversimplification; there is a menagerie of animals, including cats and dogs, but more often large farm animals, from cows and horses to pigs and sheep.
If you love animals or animal husbandry, you’ll already be on the edge of your seat as Herriot treats plenty of sick animals, but also well ones too. He delivers many babies in the mud, but he also looks in on a very spoiled and overfed Pekingese Tricki Woo. Some stories are heart-wrenching; others are lighthearted and fun; they’re all sweet and inspirational.
But there’s a lot more to these little stories than the animals. They are pastoral and a love letter to the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. They capture a specific time and place and the people who live there. Herriot tells stories of poor farmers scraping together their meager earnings to pay for his services and of others who refuse to pay at all. The rapid industrialization of farming pinches almost all of his clients, as his own veterinary practice advances quickly alongside them.
Herriot’s boss Siegfried and Siegfried’s younger brother Tristan provide a good deal of comic relief, as Siegfried again and again fires his younger brother from the practice, but every morning after each firing, everyone just pretends like nothing happened. Herriot and Triston have some rough-and-tumble adventures, and there’s a lot of rugged country living with plenty of smoking and drinking.
The book is quite long, but easy to read with its loose narrative. And once you get into it, you won’t want it to stop. Highly recommended for a soothing pastoral mental getaway that reminds you that there are good people in the world.