All Creatures Great and Small by Herriot, James

New York: St Martin's Press BOOK: Spine, Boards Bumped; Moderate Shelf Rub to Boards; Edges Lightly Soiled; Slight Yellowing Due to Age. DUST JACKET: Lightly Creased; Moderately Chipped; Moderate Yellowing Due to Age; In Archival Quality Jacket Cover. The warm and joyful memoirs of an animal doctor. MOVIE/TV TIE-IN: James Herriot's writings were the basis for a 1975 Made for Television movie and a 1978 television series, both entitled All Creatures Great and Small. SYNOPSIS: Perhaps once a decade an unknown man or woman--who happens to be a born story-teller--writes his memoirs, and we have a miracle between covers. And for some reason the locale is almost always rural--a natural setting. We think that in James Herriot--who is a country-side animal doctor--and All Creatures Great and Small we have just such an author, setting and miracle. The book shines with humor, pathos, superb tale-telling and, a rarity above all these, what seems a richly justified love of life. Whether on his back in a muck-filled stable with his arm inside a cow, trying to turn a calf into the proper position to be born, or calming a wealthy dowager with an overfed Pekingese, or comforting a lonely old man whose only companion--a dog--has died, James Herriot needed all the bedside manner, stamina, skill, and gift of humanity of the best of family doctors. He had his problems but his compensations were great. He was always aware of the wild beauty of the country around him; the sunlit fields were his operating table; and his patients (ranging from kittens to race horses) and his clients (ranging from the most crotchety Yorkshire plowman to the lovely farmer's daughter who brought romance into his life) all filled him with infinite fascination, affection and joy. We think his book will fill you with the same things--and a book that does that is a miracle indeed. James Herriot is still a practicing veterinary surgeon. He grew up in Scotland and went to Glasgow Veterinary College. After qualifying he went to work in the Yorkshire Dales of northern England. Except for wartime service in the R.A.F. he has never left Yorkshire, and he still works with Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, the colorful characters in his book. Outside his work, his interests are music, football and dog-walking. James Herriot is married, with a son, who is a veterinary surgeon and a daughter who is a doctor.. Hard Cover. Very Good/Good. Illus. by Don Stivers. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.