You don't have to be a future veterinarian to appreciate James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small. You just have to be human. That was the key to Herriot's sixty year success in the field he so loved. Whether it was secretly replacing an elderly woman's dead parakeet or putting down an expensive race horse, Herriot treated his patients and their owners with respect and dignity.

In college in the early 1930's a teacher once told the young student, "If you decide to become a veterinary surgeon you will never grow rich but you will have a life of endless interest and variety," and this proves a fair review of All Creatures. It is based on the diaries Herriot kept as a young veterinarian working in the Yorkshire Dales and is filled with many interesting aspects of early veterinary medicine. It is also chock full of a variety of every day experiences, vividly brought to life.

All Creatures begins with Herriot's first interview out of college for the position he so desperately wanted as assistant to Siegfried Farnon. Siegfried is enthusiastic about all the new medical practices, from vaccinations to cow cesareans, and is pleased to have Herriot aboard. The book follows their exploits and mishaps while introducing us to a myriad of colorful characters, some human, some not. Siegfried's younger brother, Tristan, frequently fails his exams at veterinary college even though he is preordained to share his brother's practice. His favorite pastimes are sleeping and "popping by the pub of an evening," but you can always count on him when an animal is in distress. Herriot's favorite client soon becomes Mrs. Pumphrey, a rich widow who pampers her precious Pekingese, Tricky Woo, by overfeeding him and who pays Herriot back with little gifts of cigars and kippers and thank you notes signed by her dog.

Once Herriot masters the names of all the local farmers and their amazingly varied accents, he's only halfway there. Siegfried's genuine desire to see his new assistant "settle down" leads to Herriot's first date with his future wife, Helen Alderson, where everything that can go wrong does. As an author, Herriot doesn't flinch at recalling the details in any of his failures, socially or professionally. All Creatures reads as a wonderful combination of history and romance, full of wit and packed with personalities.

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