All Creatures Great And Small

KK and I took a day trip from York to Thirsk today (just 20 minutes away). We strolled through the small town's park which runs along a small stream when, what do we see?

Could it be Bessie? We went down to her and she told us a startling story. Bessie had decided to come down to good 'ole England for the weekend, not an unusual plan when the weather is so fine. So down Bessie came. Everything was grand, she told us, until she started feeling sick. 

We told Bessie that she was in luck! Because we were in Herriot country - James Herriot, that is. For those that don't know, James Herriot (which is the pen name for James Alfred Wight) was a veterinary and author serving in Thirsk and the surrounding Yorkshire Dales.

Bessie is quite particular to who doctors her, so she wasn't so sure about this Herriot fellow. KK and I had just come from the World of James Herriot museum so we filled her in on this amazing vet's qualifications.

James got his degree from Glasgow Veterinary College and got a job soon after with Donald Sinclair (Siegfried Farnon). Though James was most interested in small animal practice, his assistant job to Siegfried was almost entirely on local farms with sheep, cows, horses, pigs and the like. It was a rough job. A country vet is on call 24/7 and the Yorkshire weather is rarely in your favor. A normal day would start by driving all around the tiny, rocky back roads of the Dales in a sometimes uncooperative car. Once on the the farm, the job would usually be done outside in the rainy cold, up to your knees in mud and your arm up a cow's bum.

James, Donald and Brian (Tristan Farnon) did also have a small animal practice in their home. By the way, the museum is actually in James Herriot's old house. So the rooms we wandered through were actually used by him, his fellow vets and his family. This was the very cupboard James and his partner stored and prepared medicines.

And this is where they met with patients.

And this is were the family cooked, ate, did homework, socialized, and sometimes where James would perform surgery on larger animals. 

It truly was amazing to be standing in the same home as the great James Herriot. But we digress, and Bessie urged us to get on with this vet's qualifications.

James was a vet his whole life. He first decided to become a vet upon reading an article on a vet's life at the age if 14. From college until he was too old to operate, he lived the vet's life. But when did he have the time to write his world famous books (collectively known as All Creatures Great and Small from the BBC recreation)? He didn't really, not with the life of a vet. But he continually had experiences and met odd characters that he would tell his wife he'd put into 'his book.' And at the age of 50, he finally sat down and spent the little free time he had writing true-to-life and very entertaining stories. Even after the books and films became a great success, James continued being a vet and said with the widest smile, "My life didn't change in the slightest. Vets don't have time to change." He wrote the books for his own and others entertainment. I'd say he succeeded in that immensely. 

After hearing all we had to say about the amazing James Herriot, Bessie said she actually felt much better. All this story-writing and arms up where they shouldn't be made her feel right as rain.

So off she went and thankfully didn't need help from a veterinary that day.

James Herriot died in 1995 and his funeral service was held at the York Minster (from York Highlights). Many remember and respect this hard-working and life-loving man.