Reviews for All Creatures Great and Small

The average rating for All Creatures Great and Small based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-06-27 00:00:00 Jonathan Heslin Oh dear heavens, a cow is having a difficult birth! A cat is sick! The local lord's thoroughbred has skinned its knee! To live in a world where these are your most worrisome worries is to live in the world of James Herriot, the pen name of Alf Wight, the real-life mid-20th century country vet of the Yorkshire Dales in northern England. Having said that, Herriot's stories wouldn't be as ragingly popular as they have been if they were nothing but fluff. No, for a bunch of "animal tales" there's a great deal of pathos herein. Just about every story delves into the human condition as it pertains to the Dales farmers and their struggle to exist, never mind thrive, in the harsh conditions of not only weather, but the rapidly accelerating industrialization of farming. Mid-century small farms were feeling the pinch and Herriot captured the fight. He also mixes in the everyday strife of everyman in a very relatable way. Loosely based on his experiences, these delightful tales ("drama cozies" I call them) take place in an idyllic setting: The Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors... Muker in Swaledale Addingham, west of Harrogate The Cleveland Way near Wainstones The story begins with Herriot as a newly graduated vet arriving at the home and veterinarian practice of Siegfried Farnon and his aloof, fun-loving brother Tristan, two eccentric fellows who provide a good deal of comic relief and storytelling foil. It's the 1930s and, although war is on the horizon, this first book in the series focuses on the not-so-tumultuous time prior, when an outbreak of animal contagion was the apex of concern. In general the tension for these anecdotal stories, all cobbled together into one loose narrative, is on the light side, unless you're an animal lover, in which case you will feel your heart ripped out and replenished again and again. Though essentially a collection of short stories, All Creatures Great and Small does a great job of providing an intro into the world and character of Herriot, it delivers highly readable pastoral tales, and then it gives you a sense of closure without closing out the option for more stories to come. And boy are there more stories! These stories will satisfy lovers of animals, animal husbandry, pre-WWII veterinarian practice (an industry in flux at the time), the English countryside and Yorkshire life specifically, as well as those looking for a light taste of pastoral humor. I liken reading Herriot to watching painter Bob "Happy Little Trees" Ross in action. It's soothing stuff. PS: I enjoyed looking through pics of the Dales and Moors for this review so much that I'm going to add more. Let's call this the... * * * PIX APPENDIX! * * * Upper Swaledale 23 Kirkgate, Thirsk (Home and practice of James Herriot) Goatland Railroad Station (used in the first Harry Potter movie)

Review # 2 was written on 2008-06-03 00:00:00 Jayakumar Jayakumar I have this problem--an addiction, really--called BOOKS. I start reading one and I usually can't stop until I realize that awful smell is... ME!... or my kids do that incessant-tapping-on-my-shoulder thing to ask if dinnertime will be occurring before bedtime... (I know, I know. Probably shouldn't have put that in print. Now CPS is gonna come after me.) Point being: This book was NOT like that. I could read one chapter each night, then put it down without my brain going all... twitchy (those of you fellow addicts know what I mean... you other better-adjusted readers, just take my word for it that "twitchy" is the perfect adjective). Could it be? A non-page-turner that I actually ENJOYED??? Why aren't there more books like this! I would be a much healthier person! Herriot doesn't really have a through-plot (thus the non-page-turner quality), but each chapter presents a new, hilarious recollection from his young veterinary days in the Yorkshire countryside. You know, one of those "horses lifting you off the ground with their teeth, removing pig testicles, becoming the honorary uncle of a rich lady's spoiled pug" kind of reads. I must have laughed out loud at some point in every chapter. If you're looking for a fun little book that you can just pick up every once in a while that won't cause you to go all... twitchy... THIS IS IT! Just open the book and start reading anywhere! Read one chapter, five, the whole thing--doesn't matter. There's no real "story"... but you'll get a good laugh. Several, in fact.