All Things Wise and Wonderful Book

So while I was reading (or should I say rereading) All Things Wise and Wonderful (James Herriot's third veterinarian memoir omnibus, containing Vets Might Fly and Vet in a Spin), I realised that although it presents the author's wartime experiences training to become a pilot in the RAF (Royal Air Force), the frame narrrative of the author's RAF sessions and experiences, interspersed with and by remembrances of animals both great and small, of cases seen and treated both successfully and unsuccessfully, with both joyful and sometimes sadly tragic outcomes, really does not focus much on the actual horrors of WWII, on Nazi atrocities, on the bombing of England, but generally and primarily on the specific training sessions, on the author's personal experiences trying to learn how to become a pilot (and how, after his training is complete, an old medical issue arrises and proverbially clips James Herriot's wings).

Now personally, that WWII is always present but not really over-used or even featured that much as a flesh and blood scenario at all (and obviously seen and approached as secondary compared to the description and depiction of James Herriot's personal pilot training stories and of course the animal cases featured, the cows, dogs, cats etc. encountered and given treatment) has been very much appreciated and enjoyed, but I guess I can also understand that some readers might well not consider All Things Wise and Wonderful as serious enough with regard to the representation of WWII, that they might be frustrated and annoyed that there really is never any actual criticism or even condemnation of Nazi Germany (although I for one consider this rather a positive, as the main focus and themes of All Things Wise and Wonderful are James Herriot's experiences as a pilot in training and as a veternarian, and it would feel rather strange and uncomfortable, not to mention a wee bit off topic if there had been musings on WWII or on Naziism, the Holocaust and the like).

With regard to the veterinarian episodes presented in All Things Wise and Wonderful, while I have personally found them as wonderful, as entertaining and as evocative as the first two James Herriot omnibuses (and consider the author's memoirs comfort reading pure), I do leave a bit of a potential caveat that there indeed are some rather heavy-duty and sad scenarios portrayed (such as the suicide of a dog owner who cannot handle that his faithful canine companion has had to be euthanised). Therefore, if All Things Wise and Wonderful is read by children (and older children above the age of ten or eleven do indeed often read James Herriot) this and a few other similarly problematic storylines might well need to be discussed, as there could be a few uncomfortable questions that arise. And furthermore, finally, I also am aware of the fact that certain readers have in the past somewhat chafed at James Herriot's humourous and in no way all that ashamed or contrite depictions of going repeatedly AWOL from his RAF training to visit his pregnant wife (something that I for one both much understand and even accept if not rather condone, but I do know and appreciate that this could rub some individuals very much the wrong way).