All Things Bright And Beautiful (2004) - Plot & Excerpts
"Isn't that grand to see!"Reading James Herriot's stories of being a vet in Yorkshire in the late 1930s is like eating comfort food for the body and drinking tonic for the soul. In his second omnibus book, All Things Bright and Beautiful (1974), James has been working in the Yorkshire country community of Darrowby for over two years, and is still living in Skeldale House with his boss Siegfried Farnon and his boss' younger brother Tristan, who is still studying to be a vet. In the first chapter James is married to Helen (and deeply thankful to her when he returns to bed from a middle of the night in the dead of winter farm call and she puts her warm legs over his icy ones), while in some of the following chapters he's still courting her in his ongoing series of comical date debacles that began in the first omnibus book, All Creatures Great and Small (1972). As in the earlier book, Herriot jumps around a bit in time as he narrates the stories about thirty years after they take place, each chapter or two makes a short story, and all the stories cohere in a composite historical fiction novel. This "novel" tells the story of James’ realization that he loves his work and life as a farm animal vet in the Yorkshire dales and moors ("It was the greatest good fortune to be not only fascinated by animals but to know about them"), even as the day approaches when he must leave everything and everyone he loves to join the RAF as World War II gets going. A key part of the ongoing story of the two omnibus books is that of the changing world of farms and vets that Herriot entered fresh out of veterinary college: the tractor was replacing the draft horse, new medicines like antibiotics were replacing traditional “folk” remedies, small animals like cats and dogs were receiving more veterinary care, and even the Yorkshire dialect was softening. Although this changing world brings with it wonderful moments as when a new medicine miraculously saves the lives of some calves, it also inevitably brings with it a feeling of loss. Herriot's stories concern people and their animals. They are often intensely poignant by virtue of being understated and unsentimental. They are also often very funny by virtue of Herriot's insights into human nature and gift for expressing people's idiosyncrasies and human nature in general sympathetically rather than mean-spiritedly. One of the marvelous things about Herriot’s vet stories is how despite the limited setting he never repeats himself. The horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, dogs, cats, and even at one point a budgie suffer myriad ailments, to which they react with patience, trust, fear, or rage according to their characters. Swollen testicles, prolapsed uteruses, stillbirths, delayed deliveries, hysterectomies, car accidents, tetanus, gastroenteritis, distemper, epilepsy, contagious bovine abortion, white scour, poison, swallowed underwear, old age, and more. Because Herriot is not always able to save the lives of his patients, the stories are often quite suspenseful. There are also many savory human characters, among them Granville Bennett (the successful, bon vivant vet specializing in small animal surgery), Siegfried Farnon (James' occasionally exasperating but good-hearted boss) and Tristan Farnon (James' boss' flighty but good-hearted younger brother), and, of course, James' main clients, Yorkshire farmers: combative farmers, friendly farmers, stingy farmers, singing farmers, joking farmers, interfering farmers, teetotaling Methodist farmers, homemade wine expert farmers, English mangling farmers, woman farmers, and ex-farmer artists. Could the countryside around Darrowby really teem so with idiosyncratic farmers? (Herriot may go a wee bit too far with the farmer who affects a Texas drawl and uses "cowboy" lingo like "tarnation," and "ornery critter.") But their interactions with James are entertaining. Herriot sure can write, as in this description of Yorkshire in spring:"At the gate I stopped and gazed back at the wide landscape, ribbed and streaked by the last of the winter's snow, and at the dark grey banks of cloud riding across on the wind followed by lakes of brightest blue; and in seconds the fields and walls and woods burst into vivid life and I had to close my eyes against the sun's glare. As I stood there, the distant uproar came faintly down to me, the tumultuous harmony from the deepest bass to highest treble; demanding, anxious, angry, loving.The sound of the sheep, the sound of spring."Two points about the audiobook. First, music suddenly fades in and out in the middle of chapters according (I think) to the beginnings and ends of the original audiobook CDs rather than according to the beginnings and ends of chapters, but it's always appropriate to whatever scene is going on and sounds good, being composed of string and wind instruments and pianos. Second, Christopher Timothy, who played Herriot in the BBC series All Creatures Great and Small in the 1970s, is a splendid Herriot in the audiobooks, and does wonderful minor character voices as well, especially the Yorkshire farmers. I love listening to him say lines like "He's nowt but a bloody nuisance is awd Harold" or "Aye, I don’t mind learnin' summat new. I'm nobbut a lad yet."Anyone interested in animals, the bonds between them and human beings, or Yorkshire would love this book and the omnibus volumes before and after it.
Love Makes Us DignifiedAll things bright and beautifulAll things bright and beautiful,All creatures great and small,All things wise and wonderful,The Lord made them all.——Cecil Frances Alexander 1818 - 1895 The dog that looks on chasing carriages as a practice of art, the old cat that spurs riots among the others...All Things Bright and Beautiful is a biographical book filled with miraculous tales of animals and hilarious anecdotes of people the author meets along the way. As a rural vet in the Yorkshire Dales of Northern England, Herriot portrays such an engaging and funny sitcom that makes me want to fly to Scotland, hole up in a cottage and raise my own animals. Life as a country veterinarian is full of drudgery. Herriot, subjecting to calls at all hours of all day is perhaps as convenient as the 7-Eleven. Either in the hot mid summer or freezing winter, either at dawn or in the deep night, Herriot has to get on his rickety battered old car and pay a visit while there might be a sarcastic farmer sitting beside. Sometimes it’s so weary that he describes himself as being in the sonambulistic state. But life has not deceived him and has compensated him with plenty of other things. He saves lives, not human’s however, therefore he is scarcely troubled by complicated interpersonal relationships. He encounters gorgeous scenes of the vast windswept Yorkshire Dales, gets to live in a courtyard covered with glamorous purple vine, meets lifetime friends like Tristan and Siegfried and runs into assorted animals with personalities as bizarre as their owners. Herriot writes in a “life goes on” pattern where the narrative is rather loose with little overarching plots. The genuine love and abiding compassion for both animals and people unites his stories with little chronological accordance. Herriot has a heart beaming with earnest love for everything, which allows him to capture beauty in the most ordinary. He is crazily in love with animals and is burning with anxiety when they fall ill. Once they get better , he is thrilled with ecstasy. He could spend hours watching the newly recovered cow eating grass and forgets all about time. The real draw for readers are “heart-warming” yarns that are not at all saccharine. His gift for characterization, distilling his experiences and spinning them into enjoyable lines makes reading the book such a pleasant and soothing experience. Even though the stories are about animals, they're really about people. Humanity is personified and described nearly on every page. It’s easy to identify melancholy, pertinacity, hardship, failure, triumph and any other things that a person might encounter. The foibles and idiosyncrasies of his patients and their owners can also be seen among our ordinary.The author’s attitude towards life is what impresses me most. As a recipient of the British Empire Medal, whose books have been on The New York Times Best Seller for many times and sold all across the Atlantic, James Herriot remained as a country veterinarian in rural Scotland for more than fifty years. His works were wrote in sleepless mornings after delivering a cow or at midnight after having an exhausting day. He writes about a dying white horse, a cattle suffering from gastro intestinal spasm and even a budgie. He is knighted and his books sells well, but none of these matters much to him. Leading a simple and peaceful life in the 1930's Darrowby England, shuttling across the green vales and mountains, there is no doubt that Herriot is among the anti-wars. Thus hardly any discussion about the World War II can be found in this book, which makes the narration somehow jumpy, since he keeps avoiding the subject by casting back, forth, and sideways. I was constantly looking up veterinary terms online while reading. But the process of knowing about animal diseases and treatments is a rewarding learning experience. The descriptions of the blood, guts and delivery are quite graphic, nevertheless it never made me queasy. One of the most hilarious story I consider is a farmer who phones Herriot saying that his sow has been madly trying to kill her babies. By the time the vet arrives, the farmer claims that he had fed her with a bucket of beer. If I wasn’t laughing out by myself, I was immersed in the very touching pieces. The book resonates with me by its evocative warmness that I even have this instant urge to buy a pet dog after reading.The life pattern of an veterinarian is rather plain, yet the author, with his keen observations are able to see the people and occurrence around in an interesting way. Attending classes, eating, dwelling in the dormitories and trying to finish assignments before deadlines stuffs my rigid daily routine. The way Herriot sees about life inspires me to step back and ponder. I have slowed down my pace and noticed things that I used to lose sight of. Birds fly over towards the glaring sun on the horizon as if they were flying home. Every day twilight falls and night gathers. As I watched the clouds unfolding in the clear sky, I felt a deep sense of inner peace that rarely had arisen before. I yearn for a life like Herriot’s and then I realize that my life can be just as engaging and abundant as his.
What do You think about All Things Bright And Beautiful (2004)?
James Herroit pulled off another great book. All creatures bright and beautiful is the sequel to all creature great and small.In this book James is starting to get a hang of being a country vet. He goes through many struggles but he also goes through nice thing in life. Such as when he saved the dog and gave it to a loving lady that could take care of it. He also goes through lots of struggles. Not only with animals but also with humans that don't take care of there pets. He dealt with that when he went to the county fair and people claimed that he wasn't doing his job right and that there animals are fine. I would recommend this book to any who has a love for animals or has read other James Herriot books and can understand his humor in the story .
—Caroline Blain
Dogs, cows, horses, sheep, cats and more die, while others are saved, some miraculously so in this continuation of James Herriot's series based on his experiences as a vet in the Yorkshire Dales of Northern England. The gorgeous Yorkshire Dales...The vast and windswept Yorkshire Dales...This time around the country vet deals with drunk farmers, gets drunk on the job himself, has his Christmas spirit dashed and renewed all in one day, laments the disappearance of horses from farms, puts up with a snobby intern, and gets called up for service in the war raging in Europe. (Herriot seeing a couple patients.)Herriot gives us victories as well as his embarrassing defeats, the latter of which strengthens our love and attachment for the good doctor. The narrative is loose enough for Herriot to drop in things like past veterinarian calls and memories of pre-married life and coming up short in the eyes of his father-in-law. Like a classic British sitcom, tried and true comedy is leaned on and recurring characters (such as Mr. Pickersgill the know-it-all who knows nothing and Clancy, a massive dog with a temper to match his size) make an appearance. These things may not be what we came for, but they are part of the package and without them the book wouldn't feel whole. If the chapters sometimes seem like short stories, it's because they essentially are. Some are true, some are fabricated for sheer pleasure, and all are based on Herriot's (pen name) long career through out the 20th century, a time of change in the veterinarian and UK farming industry. There's no real overarching plot, just a sort of "life goes on" storyline that vaguely keeps the narrative going. The real draw for readers comes from the subject matter and Herriot's keen observations and great ability to spin a highly enjoyable yarn.
—Jason Koivu
Herriot did it again - another brilliant novel, just like his former book, All Creatures Great and Small. This one was a continuation of All Creatures, where we join Herriot in the next stage of his life as a veternarian in Darrowby, this time married and with his own practice.There are notable, interesting differences between this book and All Creatures.In All Creatures, Herriot had just moved out to the country and begun his bachelor life as a new vet. The book was more humorous and whimsical overall, with less focus on Herriot and more on unexpected events and on the other characters' conduct.In contract, Bright and Beautiful has a remarkably more mature perspective, while preserving the subtle humor that comes out so well in both books. In a way, this is a very natural, and welcome progression; Herriot is married now and he includes more stories about his family, further develops his emotions throughout the stories, and illuminates the realities of domestic life. We hear less about the quirky characters like Tristan and Sigfried in this book than when we first met them in All Creatures.In an even better way than in All Creatures, Herriot develops the personality of the animals he treats. How could I forget, for example, of Prudence the pig, the spoiled and clever one with a penchant for digestive biscuits and complete lack of regard for Herriot's schedule? Or about Timmy the dog with a vendetta, who never forgave Herriot for the unpleasant treatment he had to endure while Herriot saved the dog's life.Herriots again succeeds in developing immense depth of the human characters. And the stories are written in his typical short-story type chapters.I just can't get enough. I'm already looking forward to picking up Herriot's next book in this series.
—Laura Westmeyer
