Paul Schell

I rate the brilliant original veterinary memoir writings of Alf Wight as 5 out of 5. His unique and wonderful profession together with the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales fill the bulk of his stories. However, the beautiful thread that runs through Wight’s writings is the wonderful love affair between him as his book character James Herriot, and the love of his life, the very beautiful, charming and gifted Helen. It’s possibly the real reason why Alf Wight wrote his amazing stories. These exceptional creative veterinary writings can be viewed as fillers to James Herriot’s love life and the evolution of his lovely family. The latest tv series of All Creatures Great and Small, has plundered the James Herriot writings for its own indulgence into theatre. It’s blatantly too squeaky clean and polished to recapture the basic, stark and unpretentious world of the period in Yorkshire it proposes to represent. The characters are embarrassingly out of character. And as stated by other reviewers, Mrs Hall is not Herriot’s character by any stretch of imagination. While the latest tv series is disappointing, the original books will always exist to provide possibly the most enjoyable reading experience of one’s life.