ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL

by James Herriot ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 22, 1972

Never has that tendency of the rural English to endow their animals with familial status been so cheerfully or affectionately explored than in this memoir by a Yorkshire vet. Herriot, fully aware of his English audience's predilection for animal anecdote and the laconic ways of Yorkshire farmers, supplies both as he remembers his early apprenticeship years under the colorful tutelage of Dr. Siegfried Farnon who ran a happily untidy but highly respected practice. Most of Herriot's working hours were spent in barns dragging calves from laboring cows, often while snow drifted through the door in the small hours. But there are also tales of sturdy old dogs and kittens, starving piglets revitalized by new sow's milk, a gypsy pony saved by unorthodox measures, and throughout there are insights into the ways of humans when coping with ailing beasts. Herriot also writes amusingly of his social life and obstacle-fraught courtship of his wife-to-be. An enjoyable memoir by a dream vet who enjoys both people and animals.

Pub Date: Oct. 22, 1972

ISBN: 0312330855

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION