All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

First published: 1972

Type of work: Memoir

Time of work: The late 1930’s

Locale: North Yorkshire, England

Principal Personages:

• James Herriot, a young Scottish veterinarian
• Siegfried Farnon, his employer, a veterinarian in rural Yorkshire
• Helen, his beloved, the daughter of a Yorkshire farmer
• Tristan Farnon, Siegfried’s younger brother

Form and Content

Fame came suddenly and unexpectedly to James Wight, who adopted the pseudonym James Herriot. It also came late; All Creatures Great and Small was published when he was in his mid-fifties. Wight had always wanted to write about experiences gleaned from his veterinary practice—to make an effort to fix, at least for himself, the character of his neighbors and the beauty of the land in which he had spent his professional life and which he had come to love intensely—but he never seemed to be able to get started. Finally, after his silver wedding anniversary, to show his wife that he meant business, he got started, writing his stories either before the television set at night or during small blocks of time between daytime calls.

In its format, the book reflects the manner in which it was written: a series of short episodes, many complete in themselves, devoid of any continuing plot line save that of the ongoing experiences of a dedicated professional on his rounds. If his chopped-up means of composition deprived Herriot of the opportunity to build a systematic, well-integrated narrative, it gave him the opportunity to return with freshness and new insight to his work, to infuse it with greater spontaneity.

Herriot confessed that the nervous frustration of constant interruption helped his style. He had begun with sentences worthy of an essay by Thomas Macaulay; eventually, however, he came to eschew most adjectives and developed a simple, proletarian prose that one might use in telling a tale in a country pub. Although Herriot delighted in the success of his literary efforts, he downplayed the result. “Nothing important has ever happened to me,” he commented; “my life is merely the framework for a series of animal incidents.”

These incidents he presents randomly, in fifty-seven short, mostly self-contained chapters which could easily be excerpted for separate publication, as has often been done. All Creatures Great and Small covers roughly a two-year period, beginning with Herriot’s arrival in Darrowby to apply for a scarce job as assistant to the local resident veterinarian, Siegfried Farnon. A loose chronology is maintained, but there is little indication of the passage of time. Development flows from Herriot’s growing experience as a veterinarian and increased understanding of people: his ability to master the practicalities of his craft, his success in adjusting to a situation for which his formal schooling in Glasgow had little prepared him, his adjustment to the particular style and customs of the Yorkshire Dalesmen.

Herriot fleshes out this account with details from his personal life, principally his relations with his erratic and often-contradictory boss, Farnon, and his courtship of Helen, the daughter of a local farmer. Their love story provides the book with a certain low level of suspense, not that the outcome is ever in doubt. The book ends happily. James is wed and accepted as a full partner in the veterinary practice. A few hardhearted types might dismiss such a joyous book as sentimental flummery, but Herriot’s buoyant conviction that he is living in the best of all possible worlds becomes irresistible to most of his readers.

Critical Context

The English have always been especially fond of animal stories. In fact, they can be said to have invented the animal-story genre. British authors have concocted a whole menagerie of animal adventures: a black horse down on his luck (Anna Sewell); a bear, a pig, and an owl cavorting in a hundred-acre wood (A. A. Milne); a lost collie trying to find his way home (Eric Knight). Following in this tradition, tales of a rural veterinarian doing battle with the forces of ignorance and disease seem particularly appropriate. Yet unlike other writers of animal stories, Herriot found it unnecessary to embellish his tales with fanciful elements. “I’ve played down lots of anecdotes,” he remarked, in answer to certain skeptical readers. “What happens with animals is unbelievable.”

Still, Herriot was surprised at the commercial success of All Creatures Great and Small. “I’m on a gorgeous wicket,” he chortled. “No one had thought of writing funny books about cows and pigs before. And it’s nice to make people laugh.” The book inspired other veterinarians to try their hand at similar writing. In Ms. Veterinarian (1976), Mary Price Lee encouraged young women to follow her in this field long dominated by men. Animal Doctor: The History and Practice of Veterinary Medicine (1973) by Leon F. Whitney and George Whitney provided an overview of veterinary medicine. The Wonder of It All (1979) by Jeanne Logue and Zoovet: The World of a Wildlife Vet (1976) by David Taylor are Herriot spin-offs, bringing human drama into accounts of the care and feeding of animals. The latter book earned the endorsement of Herriot himself, who called it “a uniquely different and enchanting book” that deserved to be a best-seller.

Meanwhile, Herriot was busy producing a series of sequels: All Things Bright and Beautiful (1974), All Things Wise and Wonderful (1977), and The Lord God Made Them All (1981). In these works he relates further adventures among the Yorkshire locals. He provides continuity by retaining characters he had so memorably described in his first book: Siegfried Farnon, his irascible boss, now his associate; Tristan, Siegfried’s brother, now a respected veterinarian in his own right; and Herriot’s wife, Helen, who has borne two boisterous, inquisitive children. Like his first book, these accounts cover periods of a year or so; Herriot has confessed that in structuring them thus he was perhaps being cunning: “I’ve got years and years to go yet.”

All Creatures Great and Small was universally hailed for its literary skill, its mixture of humor and sympathy, and its celebration of humanity and the enjoyment of a life full of purpose. Herriot’s later works did not merit such high praise. Some critics called them formulaic and repetitious and some said that Herriot’s literary skill had declined, but few found him any less charming and engaging.

Bibliography

Brower, M. “Long a Success as ’James Herriot,’ Yorkshire Vet Jim Wight Says ’All Things Must Come to an End,’” in People Weekly. XXIII (March 18, 1985), pp. 91-92.

Del Balso, Suzanne. “Wise, Wonderful World of the Real James Herriot,” in Good Housekeeping. CLXXXVIII (March, 1979), pp. 148-149.

Freilicher, L. “Story Behind Book: All Creatures Great and Small,” in Publishers Weekly. CCIII (January 8, 1973), p. 53.

Green, Timothy. “Best-Selling Vet Practices As Usual,” in Smithsonian. V (November, 1974), pp. 90-97.

Herriot, James. Interview by Arturo F. Gonzalez, Jr., in Saturday Review. XII (May/June, 1986), pp. 56-59.

Kanfer, Stefan. “The Marcus Welby of the Barnyard,” in Time. CXVII (June 29, 1981), pp. 74-78.