All Creatures Great and Small

442 pp. "Perhaps once a decade an unknown man or woman -- who happens to be a born story-teller -- writes his memoirs, and we have a miracle between covers. And for some reason the locale is almost always rural -- a natural setting. We think that in James Herriot -- who is a countryside animal doctor -- and All Creatures Great and Small we have just such an author, setting and miracle. The book shines with humor, pathos, superb tale-telling and, a rarity above all these, what seems a richly justified love of life. Whether on his back in a muck-filled stable with his arm inside a cow, trying to turn a calf into the proper position to be born, or calming a wealthy dowager with an overfed Pekingese, or comforting a lonely old man whose only companion -- a dog -- has died, James Herriot needed all the bedside manner, stamina, skill, and gift of humanity of the best of family doctors. He had his problems but his compensations were great. He was always aware of the wild beauty of the country around him; the sunlit fields were his operating table; and his patients (ranging from kittens to race horses) and his clients (ranging from the most crotchety Yorkshire plowman to the lovely farmer's daughter who brought romance into his life) all filled him with infinite fascination, affection and joy. We think his book will fill you with the same things -- and a book that does that is a miracle indeed. James Herriot, a practicing veterinarian, grew up in Scotland and went to Glasgow Veterinary College. After qualifying he went to work in the Yorkshire Dales of northern England. Except for wartime service in the R.A.F. he never left Yorkshire, or stopped working with Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, the colorful characters in his book. Outside his work, his interests were music, football and dog-walking. James Herriot was married, with a son who is a veterinary surgeon and a daughter who is a doctor. He passed away from cancer on February 23, 1995.