All Things Bright and Beautiful : 12 Cassettes, 13 Hours

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All Things Bright and Beautiful : 12 Cassettes, 13 Hours

by James Herriot

4.28 · rating details · 11,121 ratings · 286 reviews

James Herriot has now become firmly established and accepted as one of Darrowby's veterinarians. He's also married, and lives with his wife Helen on the top floor of Skeldale House. His former boss, now partner, Siegfried, lives downstairs with Siegfried's brother Tristan.

James continues the rich and rewarding day-to-day life of a small-town veterinarian, and we jo...more

Audio Cassette, 0 pages

Published September 15th 1996 by Renaissance Press (first published 1973)

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Mar 12, 2007

Melissa rated it

· review of another edition

In fact it set me to thinking about the big question of how girls might be expected to behave after marriage. One old farmer giving me advice about choosing a wife once said; "Have a bloody good look at the mother first, lad. " and I am sure he had a point. But if I may throw in my own little word of counsel it would be to have a passing glance at how she acts towards her father.

Watching her now as she got down and started to serve my breakfast the warm knowledge flo...more In fact it set me to thinking about the big question of how girls might be expected to behave after marriage. One old farmer giving me advice about choosing a wife once said; "Have a bloody good look at the mother first, lad. " and I am sure he had a point. But if I may throw in my own little word of counsel it would be to have a passing glance at how she acts towards her father.

Watching her now as she got down and started to serve my breakfast the warm knowledge flowed through me as it did so often that my wife was the sort who just liked looking after a man and I was so very lucky.

All Things Bright and Beautiful, James Herriot 1974 regarding his life in the thirties.

I realize now that many do not know James Herriot. He was a country veterinarian in England. After he retired he wrote about his practice. Often the tales are hysterically funny (exploding cows, anyone?). Sometimes they are sad. What unites everything he writes is a genuine love and compassion for both people and animals. He writes with great compassion about the foibles and foolishness of his patients and their owners.

Years ago when I worked, I commuted a fair distance. I had an audio book of some of his animal stories. I would often sit it in the car after I got to work so I could finish a story (I was the kind of person who often arrived an hour to half an hour early). Some of his stories would make me laugh so hard I would almost wet my pants.

So his books are certainly endorsed by me.

A wave to Sarah. Yes we did have the BBC series my parents and us children used to watch them on Sunday afternoons. It was one of the few shows I deigned to watch with my parents when I was in HS. They were delightful. In fact, I think I would like to find them on DVD when the girls get bigger.

Also, I've discovered that the audio book I had was narrated by the fellow who played him on the series and that he has narrated most of the books written by Herriot. I should think they will be on my Christmas list at the end of the year.(less)

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Sep 05, 2011

Valerie added it · review of another edition

The titles of these books were different in Britain, and so the books are somewhat out of order for Americans. The American editions have the text of the hymn in the front. It's such a beautiful poem that I wondered why I hadn't ever heard the hymn before. Then I heard it...and it's AWFUL. Somebody would be doing the lyrics a significant favor to reset them to different music. If even my cousin, who consistently won audiences with his dynamite Al Jolson impression couldn't make it sound good...moreThe titles of these books were different in Britain, and so the books are somewhat out of order for Americans. The American editions have the text of the hymn in the front. It's such a beautiful poem that I wondered why I hadn't ever heard the hymn before. Then I heard it...and it's AWFUL. Somebody would be doing the lyrics a significant favor to reset them to different music. If even my cousin, who consistently won audiences with his dynamite Al Jolson impression couldn't make it sound good...

Herriot made it clear from the beginning that he didn't want to discuss World War II in his books, and that makes this second volume a bit jumpy, since he kept casting back, forth, and sideways, trying to avoid the subject. If you do the math, you'll realize that he was married in 1939--so the bear in the room was hard to evade. The later book in which he DID discuss his war experiences begins to explain why he didn't want to discuss it. Here I'll just note that he didn't.

There are many points that even the genial Herriot has difficulty passing off lightly. The tendency to sell diseased meat from the knacker yards for animal feed should shock people more than it did. People don't even seem to recognize the process that was a major contributor to the BSE ('mad cow' disease) epidemic as shocking and dangerous. Herriot clucks his tongue mildly at the practice, but doesn't really campaign against it (as he does against poisoning dogs, for example).

Furthermore, Herriot recognizes the tragic effects of the consolodation of the smallholdings into large factory farms, and of the tendency to replace the varied breeds of moor cattle with 'pedigreed' creatures of only one or two breeds that can't survive a winter in the open. He understands the dangers of creatures that are so inbred that they're all susceptible to the same diseases. He also complains that the animals are being butchered at such young ages that only the dairy animals are allowed to live long enough to reproduce, by and large. He greets all these problems with resignation. Sometimes I wish he'd just speak up, and (like the Prince of Wales, for example), chide people for insisting on eating lamb instead of mutton.

One thing he DOESN'T note is the tendency to 'doctor' animals by consistently drugging them with antibiotics and growth hormones. He does mention antibiotics, but not as a regular part of treatment. In the 30s, even the sulfa drugs were very new, and their effects were often miraculous--because bacteria, never having been exposed to them, had no immunity to them. As for growth hormones, there WAS experimentation with hormones at the time (cf Dorothy L Sayers' discussion of 'glands' as the new miracle treatments in current discussion), but the routine administration of growth hormones was probably quite a bit later.

On reflection, I'm amazed that Herriot never managed to kill or severely injure himself or someone else. It's not so much driving drunk (he only seems to have done that once or twice). It's the sonambulistic state he describes himself as being in on night calls. Why one of the three vets in the books doesn't get assigned to only night calls is beyond me. In rotation, if necessary. But the practice of working both day and night calls could have been very dangerous--and possibly even deadly.

As for the descriptions of food, they give the lie to nutritionists who argue that present-day people eat a uniquely large junk-food diet. Check out the description of the 'tea' early in the book, for example. Only six people (James, Helen, her father, her aunt, and her two child siblings) put away a tableful of food (a 'groaning board', and no mistake)--but though this is a Sunday tea, the evidence is that other meals were not much smaller. The heavy farm work in the open air with little mechanized aid probably helped work off a lot of the calories--but still, the amount of food is incredible compared to present 'servings'.

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May 04, 2011

Brittany rated it

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Shelves: history, sciencewriting

All Things Bright and Beautiful picks up where All Creatures Great and Small leaves off: with Jim's wedding to Helen. (I remember as a kid it confused the heck out of me that the books didn't go in the same order as the lines in the hymn did.) However, the book is not strictly chronological. One of the things that makes it such a leisurely, wonderful read is that the chapters are mostly self-contained.

This is a wonderful book to listen to on a road trip because the chapters read a b...more

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May 15, 2008

Nate rated it

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This series - of which I have now read the first two - is the most fun you can have reading books. They make you want to go to Scotland, hole up in a cottage, drink tea and read some more James Herriot. I don't want these books to ever end. As an aside, this isn't a novel, rather its a collection of short stories, each one just the right length for before bed.

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Dec 26, 2008

Elizabeth McDonald rated it

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Recommends it for: animal lovers, people wanting to feel a little better about the world

Shelves: british, biography

I always enjoy rereading James Herriot's memoirs of his experiences as a veterinarian in Yorkshire in the first half of the previous century. His tales of treating farm animals and household pets, and of the human characters he met along the way, are what I have to describe as "heart-warming". They're not saccharine, though, I promise. He's funny, too. Even though I've read his stories multiple times since middle school, I find myself laughing aloud.

This book comes second...more

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Oct 21, 2011

Tiffeny Pickett rated it

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My good neighbor got me into these books and I love them. This is the 2nd in his series. At the end of the last, he and Helen had just gotten married, and this one continues with their life. But it's still mostly his life as a veterinary surgeon in a small town in England. The stories are funny, heart-felt, sometimes sad, mostly heart-warming. I love these books and can't recommend them enough.

There isn't as much in this book about Herriot's eccentric, sometimes crazy partner Si...more

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Sep 27, 2010

Jelinas rated it

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All Things Bright and Beautiful is James Herriot's follow-up to All Creatures Great and Small and, much like his debut effort, this volume is filled with touching stories, rip-roaring humor, and, saturating everything else, a strong taste of the Yorkshire Dales. Herriot regales us with more tales from his experiences as a vet in rural Northern England.

He also arevisits his courtship of his wife and some of his misadventures along the way to marriage. And, of course, his good friends ...more

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Feb 06, 2009

Michael rated it

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There are some books you read where you just wish you could live in the world the writer portrays. James Herriot is like that for me. His stories of 30s rural Yorkshire life as a vet are warm and engaging, funny and lively. He has the ability to stir the soul, as when he writes about treating the last plow horse before tractors take over farmwork, and the funnybone, as when he describes his dealing with his crazy boss, Sigfreid.

This is another book of short stories, loosely held...more

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Dec 06, 2008

Rhonda rated it

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Recommends it for: Sarah McElhaney

This is the sequel to All Creatures Great and Small. The classic story based on the real life experience of a veterinarian in Yorkshire, England. James Herriot cotinues to live in Darrowby after his marraige to Helen Alderson. This book continues the stories of a country veterinarian and includes many small animal stories aw well.

We see less of his associates in this book. His partner (and boss), Siegfried Farnon, still frequently contradicts himself. Siegfried's brother, Tristan Far...more

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Feb 20, 2009

Rebecca rated it

So sweet and fun. Great charming characters, intriguing veterinary problems, and a cool endearing narrator witnessing history from the Yorkshire Dales. I can't wait to read the rest.

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Feb 13, 2011

Terri rated it

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Maybe I give 5 star ratings too liberally, but this book was just as wonderful as Herriot's first memoir, All Creatures Great and Small. Delightful, hilarious writing with lots of little life lessons, vignettes about a large variety of people and animals, and so much understanding and empathy. Reading this second novel felt like coming home because of how much I enjoyed the first.

I did feel there was a bit more "gore" in this one...he is after all an animal doctor and surg...more

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Apr 06, 2011

Carol rated it

· review of another edition

I have loved these books from the first one I picked up. If I wasn't laughing out loud in a room all by myself, I was mopping up the tears from a very touching experience I read about. I'm a succor for a fun and loving animal story. This is an absolutely delightful James Herriot. He's a master storyteller. This book is just a collection of experiences from when he was a vet, and it was interesting as well as hilarious. My husband and I just started watching the BBC Series provided by Netflix. ...more

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Aug 02, 2011

Dianne DiFrisco rated it

· review of another edition

I am not interested in farm animals. Which proves that James Herriot (Al White) is a great writer because I devoured all of his books.

He creates believable, lovably odd characters. He uses a lot of self-deprecating humor, especially in his descriptions of his bumbling wooing of Helen.

My favorite story is when a farmer phones James, the "Vetnery," because his sow has just had a dozen piglets and she's madly trying to kill them. By the time James drives up the dales ...more

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Nov 25, 2008

Dave rated it

· review of another edition

Delightful book! I read it when I was a medical student and it was one of the very few books that have made me laugh out loud even though I was all alone. It was funny to think of my experiences and compare them to the author who was a veterinarian student. I went on to read some of his other books and loved them as well. Each chapter is about a specific experience or type of experience (e.g. house calls or night deliveries). When we were stationed in Holland I wanted to go over to Scotland...more

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Jun 30, 2009

Helynne rated it

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Our book club assignment one month was to choose "anything by James Herriot." I checked out this volume, one in his four-part series--each book with one of the four lines of the little song, "All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Wise and Wonderful, The Lord God Made Them All." (The first book is called All Creatures Great and Small and the second is this one All Things Brighan and Beautiful . Herriot chronologically mixed up the fir...more

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Jun 24, 2011

Alexis rated it

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All Things Bright and Beautiful is a continuation of the life of James Herriot, a sensitive Yorkshire vet. We learn about new animals and are introduced to the beginnings of the antibiotic revolution.

This book was written with the same thoughtful detail as All Creatures Great and Small. Herriot uses his vivid descriptions to transport the reader to the Yorkshire Dales and sweep us along with him during his experiences as a vet.

The book ends with him being called up ...more

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May 26, 2011

Tanya rated it

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Shelves: non-fiction

I adore James Herriot. Few authors are so naturally gifted in telling their stories. He has the ability to make me laugh out loud as well as feel a spectrum of emotions. I usually note that while reading James Herriot I either feel very at peace or I have a big smile on my face.

His stories about being a country vet in Scotland are wonderful. This is the second book I have read and I can't wait to read the other two (or more?). No wonder all his books have been bestsellers (sel...more

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Aug 14, 2010

Dan rated it

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I continue to be impressed by the books in this series. They are very well written. The stories are a perfect length for a bit of casual reading before bed. One of the things that I really enjoy about them is that although there is a wonderful amount of humor in them, there are also a lot of entries that are more serious as well. Mr. Wight (James Herriot) is an impressively humble man. It's nice to read about his frustrations, as well as his successes. It's also nice to see little bits of ...more

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Apr 14, 2008

Dale rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. After I finished All Creatures Great and Small I knew for a fact that I would end up reading all of Herriot's books. So it was an abstract intellectual curiosity that had me wondering how he would be able to duplicate the formula of the first book, which was about 75% stories of learning how to be a country veterinarian and 25% stories of his hilariously inept wooing of the woman who, by the end of ACGAS, became his wife. All of which is well and good for a first novel, but where do you go fro...more

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Mar 26, 2007

Justin Gerhardstein rated it

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Shelves: favorites

This book gives you warm fuzzy feelings at times, and also can make you want to vomit. I believe this is the personal narrative of James Harriot, though I could be mistaken. At any rate, the book is a compilation of stories that are told by a veterenarian in the 50s and earlier, when the medical practices were very different than they are today. There are some gross stories about pulling steaming calves out of a mother cow in the dead of winter (which for some reason is in great detail) but ther...more

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Aug 31, 2011

Seabirdicat rated it

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My mom has been telling me to read this books for forEVER and I didn't pick one up until I was 20 years old! But I'm really glad that I finally did because James Herriot is such a great writer! He writes with wit and charm, and characterizes all the farmers and animal owners so well. The stories have a good variety of sad and happy, and subjects range from dogs, cats, horses, sheep, pigs, cows, and even a budgie! I'll definitely be picking up his other books when I have the time, and I'm really ...more

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Oct 06, 2011

Erin rated it

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Shelves: non-fiction

James Herriot is a vet in Darrowby England in the 1930's. This is a collection of short stories about his experiences with animals and the people who own the animals. He has a great sense of character development and knows how to communicate an interesting story. I love his descriptions of the people that he interacts with. He was an amazing vet and I think the farmers and pet owners would agree. I love all his books.

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Jul 22, 2010

Midnight rated it

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Ok, so maybe I am extremely partial to this author since I'm aspiring to be a vet but this memoir just touched me greatly because it chronicled the ups and downs of a vet. Herriot has a clear flair for narration and he couples vet techniques with emotions in an incredible marriage of words that just simply transposes the reader to the circumstance under which he sees his patient. Simply breathtaking.

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Nov 30, 2010

Jean rated it

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I love this author! This book, as opposed to the first in the series, is more about veterinary medicine. While the first book narrated his courtship and marriage to change things up occasionally, this one stuck more to his practice. I enjoy the authors understanding of the strengths of the country folks he works with and while I know nothing of animal diseases, I find it fascinating.

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Oct 21, 2009

Mary rated it

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These stories are probably some of the best character studies and studies of place I have ever read. The stories tell of a rural vets daily experiences as he travels to the farms in Yorkshire to treat the animals that are so important to the farmer's future. He treats both human and animal characters with dignity and respect. He also loves the countryside and stops along the way to glory in the beauty that he sees. These stories can be read in a group or one chapter once in awhile. They wil...more

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Jul 21, 2011

Abigail Hartman rated it

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Just about as hilarious as "All Creatures Great and Small," although I felt a rising panic every time Granville Bennett showed up. Towards the end of the book World War II arrives and Herriot, Tristan, and Siegfried have to enlist, so there were some moving chapters when James takes leave of the Dales. As with the first book, plenty of drinking (Granville Bennett!) and swearing (Siegfried!).

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Apr 20, 2011

Abby rated it

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Shelves: made-me-cry

A charming collection of anecdotes about James Herriot's life as a country vet in Scotland in the early 1900s. I have a very special place in my heart for Mr. Herriot, and I love veterinary stories, so of course I love this book. Herriot's writing style is so disarming and accessible that everyone is sure to relate to him and grow fond of him.

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Jan 20, 2011

Stacy Buhler added it · review of another edition

This is a book about a Vet's experiences in some small towns in the 1930's. He gives a lot of stories of treating animals, and having to deal with their interesting owners. I wish it had more of a story line, or time that carried the book. It was mix of stories, that were good, I would have just like a more of a time line with the stories.

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Jun 16, 2009

Haley rated it

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This book is written in journal style where a country veterinarian records all his experiences.

Unfortunately, it did not hold my interest at all. Usually when I'm listening to a book on CD in my car, I find myself a lot more eager to run errands. With this book, I found myself dreading being in the car. I decided to plow through it anyway hoping it would get better.

There were some stories that I enjoyed. Mr. Friar's conversation with James Herriot was pretty funny and...more

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Feb 04, 2012

Nafisa Choudhury rated it

· review of another edition

the warmth of James Herriot's books is clearly evident. It is filled with joy, love, and comedy. It makes me laugh, makes me smile, makes me sad, and makes me feel like life's a glorious thing. A book that has such power certainly deserves to be acclaimed one of the best written the world. I certainly think it to be so. -_-

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About James Herriot

James Herriot is the pen name of James Alfred Wight, OBE, FRCVS also known as Alf Wight, an English veterinary surgeon and writer. Wight is best known for his semi-autobiographical stories, often referred to collectively as All Creatures Great and Small, a title used in some editions and in film and television adaptations.

In 1939, at the age of 23, he qualified as a veterinary surgeon ...moreJames Herriot is the pen name of James Alfred Wight, OBE, FRCVS also known as Alf Wight, an English veterinary surgeon and writer. Wight is best known for his semi-autobiographical stories, often referred to collectively as All Creatures Great and Small, a title used in some editions and in film and television adaptations.

In 1939, at the age of 23, he qualified as a veterinary surgeon with Glasgow Veterinary College. In January 1940, he took a brief job at a veterinary practice in Sunderland, but moved in July to work in a rural practice based in the town of Thirsk, Yorkshire, close to the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. The original practice is now a museum, "The World of James Herriot".

Wight intended for years to write a book, but with most of his time consumed by veterinary practice and family, his writing ambition went nowhere. Challenged by his wife, in 1966 (at the age of 50), he began writing. In 1969 Wight wrote If Only They Could Talk, the first of the now-famous series based on his life working as a vet and his training in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Owing in part to professional etiquette which at that time frowned on veterinary surgeons and other professionals from advertising their services, he took a pen name, choosing "James Herriot". If Only They Could Talk was published in the United Kingdom in 1970 by Michael Joseph Ltd, but sales were slow until Thomas McCormack, of St. Martin's Press in New York City, received a copy and arranged to have the first two books published as a single volume in the United States. The resulting book, titled All Creatures Great and Small, was an overnight success, spawning numerous sequels, movies, and a successful television adaptation.

In his books, Wight calls the town where he lives and works Darrowby, which he based largely on the towns of Thirsk and Sowerby. He also renamed Donald Sinclair and his brother Brian Sinclair as Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, respectively. Wight's books are only partially autobiographical. Many of the stories are only loosely based on real events or people, and thus can be considered primarily fiction.

The Herriot books are often described as "animal stories" (Wight himself was known to refer to them as his "little cat-and-dog stories"), and given that they are about the life of a country veterinarian, animals certainly play a significant role in most of the stories. Yet animals play a lesser, sometimes even a negligible role in many of Wight's tales: the overall theme of his stories is Yorkshire country life, with its people and their animals primary elements that provide its distinct character. Further, it is Wight's shrewd observations of persons, animals, and their close inter-relationship, which give his writing much of its savour. Wight was just as interested in their owners as he was in his patients, and his writing is, at root, an amiable but keen comment on the human condition. The Yorkshire animals provide the element of pain and drama; the role of their owners is to feel and express joy, sadness, sometimes triumph. The animal characters also prevent Wight's stories from becoming twee or melodramatic — animals, unlike some humans, do not pretend to be ailing, nor have they imaginary complaints and needless fears. Their ill-health is real, not the result of flaws in their character which they avoid mending. In an age of social uncertainties, when there seem to be no remedies for anything, Wight's stories of resolute grappling with mysterious bacterial foes or severe injuries have an almost heroic quality, giving the reader a sense of assurance, even hope. Best of all, James Herriot has an abundant humour about himself and his difficulties. He never feels superior to any living thing, and is ever eager to learn — about animal doctoring, and about his fellow human creature.

In September 2010, the Gala Theatre in Durham presented the world premiere(less)

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