If Only They Could Talk by James Herriot

If Only They Could Talk was published in the United Kingdom in 1970 by Michael Joseph Ltd, but sales were slow until Thomas McCormack, of St. Owing in part to professional etiquette which at that time frowned on veterinary surgeons and other professionals from advertising their services, he took a pen name, choosing 'James Herriot'.

In 1969 Wight wrote If Only They Could Talk, the first of the now-famous series based on his life working as a vet and his training in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Challenged by his wife, in 1966 (at the age of 50), he began writing. Wight intended for years to write a book, but with most of his time consumed by veterinary practice and family, his writing ambition went nowhere. The original practice is now a museum, 'The World of James Herriot'. In January 1940, he took a brief job at a veterinary practice in Sunderland, but moved in July to work in a rural practice based in the town of Thirsk, Yorkshire, close to the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. In 1939, at the age of 23, he qualified as a veterinary surgeon with Glasgow Veterinary College. Wight is best known for his semi-autobiographical stories, often referred to collectively as All Creatures Great and Small, a title used in some editions and in film and television adaptations. James Herriot's books were televised in the enormously popular series All Creatures Great and Small.James Herriot is the pen name of James Alfred Wight, OBE, FRCVS also known as Alf Wight, an English veterinary surgeon and writer.

Heartbreaking and hilarious in equal measure, If Only They Could Talk is a book for all those who find laughter and joy in animals, and who know and understand the magic and beauty of Britain’s wild places. On the other he must contend with herds of semi-feral cattle, gruff farmers with incomprehensible accents and an overweight Pekingese called Tricki Woo. On the one hand there are his new colleagues, Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, two brothers who attract a constant stream of local girls to whom James is strangely invisible.

But even life in the sleepy village of Darrowby has its challenges. To a Glaswegian like James, 1930s Yorkshire appears to offer an idyllic pocket of rural life in a rapidly changing world. 'I grew up reading James Herriot's book and I'm delighted that thirty years on they are still every bit as charming, heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny as they were then.' – Kate Humbleįresh out of Veterinary College, and shoulder-deep in an uncooperative cow, James Herriot’s first job is not panning out exactly as expected.

If Only They Could Talk by James Herriot