All Creatures Great & Small

The Wonderful World of James Herriot:
With astute observations and boundless humor, James Herriot captures the spirit of the Yorkshire Dales and communities on the cusp of change, before tractors and machines had taken over and modern medicines and antibiotics transformed veterinary work. Herriot’s unforgettable portraits of farm animals and their human caretakers serve as the inspiration for the beloved series All Creatures Great and Small. This lovely gift edition compiles the best of his stories in one volume, illustrated with color drawings and family photographs, including a special introduction written by his two children Rosie Page and Jim Wight.

All Creatures Great and Small:
We meet young Herriot as he lands a job at a rural veterinary practice in Yorkshire, England during the 1930’s Great Depression. His early experiences living and working with Siegfried Farnon and Siegfried’s brother Tristan are told in short, anecdotal chapters—including the comings and goings at Skeldale House, meeting quirky Dale farmers and townspeople, and caring for their animals. (St. Martin’s Publishing Group, reissue edition, 2020.)

All Things Bright and Beautiful:
Readers continue to get compelling, humorous stories of the young vet, still in the early years of his professional practice with the Farnon brothers. Other singular characters are also introduced, including the “highly effective” neighboring veterinarian, Ewan Ross who hires James to test cows for TB, a student observer named Carmody, and the colorful Granville Bennett, a small animal vet invited to help with special cases. Herriot’s gentle love story also runs through this sequel and the book closes with his being called for duty in the Royal Air Force as Britain is on the verge of war. (St. Martin’s Publishing Group, reissue edition 2020.)

All Things Wise and Wonderful:
In this third volume, readers contemplate a country entering World War II. James has traded in his Yorkshire wellingtons for a shapeless flight suit: he is enlisted by the RAF into basic training. Chapters start with stories of pilot school and lonely military life, then flash back to warmer memories of James serving his Dales’ clientele. It turns out that Herriot never sees military action, however. Requiring surgery, he becomes disqualified for combat. By the end of book, James is discharged from the RAF and ready to return to his young wife and his beloved Darrowby. (St. Martin’s Griffin, reissue edition 2015.)

The Lord God Made Them All:
With Herriot home from the RAF, this title provides stories of post-war life in Darrowby. These are years of major medical advances, but the hard-working locals haven’t changed much at all. Herriot now makes veterinary calls that occasionally include his two young children, Jimmy and Rosie. What’s especially new for readers are diary-like entries peppered throughout this fourth book, describing a time when Herriot traveled to Russia and Istanbul as a supervisory veterinarian, caring for animals being sent overseas. (St. Martin’s Griffin, reissue edition 2015.)

Every Living Thing:
Herriot is now an experienced veterinary surgeon in the early 1960s, living with his family in a house he’s purchased, and having quite happily spent his entire professional career with Siegfried Farnon in Darrowby. Their veterinary practice has expanded: readers meet the talented assistant John Crooks and the eccentric one, Calum Buchanan, otherwise known as “the vet with t’badger”. The author’s young children are again in these stories, accompanying their father on his rounds. And James is still tending to Tricki Woo. (St. Martin’s Griffin, reprint edition 2015.)