One of all time favorites. You need to read the rest of the series.

I found his stories smaltzy - however, I was a fan of the series and watched it religiously. Go figure....And I just gave the whole set of books to my favorite 11 year old for her birthday last year. She's a future vet, and she loved reading these!

I really enjoyed all four books in this series, as well as his book of collected dog stories. There's a bio out on the "real" James Herriot (real name, Alf Wight) written by his son. I've not read it, but I'd like to.

My DD is interested in being a vet, and these books might be perfect for her - thanks for the idea, cindy!

I enjoyed the books very much, although I will admit they are very schmaltzy. The bio was quite an eyeopener - Herriot's books are not really autobiographical as he implied.

A bit schmaltzy, but nowhere near as schmaltzy as Albert Payson Terhune's Lad, a Dog, which I admit I was crazy about as a kid. I can enjoy reading Herriot's books over and over.

I read James Harriot books more than 25 years ago, and I enjoyed them so much that I was about to
become a vet because of him. It was only a kind of daydream because, even I in my naivety, I knew
that nowadays ( back then, in early eightys) vet- job was no longer as quaint as depicted in his books.

grelobe

>nowhere near as schmaltzy as Albert Payson Terhune's Lad, a Dog, which I admit I was crazy about as a kid.

Hee, me too! But then at about the same age I was reading Rod Mckuen, Love Story and Jonathan Livingston Seagul. Schmaltzy was my middle name.

BTW did anyone else go for dog and horse books, sometime around 6th grade? Seems I went through an entire year of Lad, Lassie, Man o War, Black Beauty etc. Then as quickly as it started, the fad stopped and I never picked up another.

Cindy, around the 6th grade, I was horse-crazy, as were a lot of my friends. We went to horse shows and demanded riding lessons. I still have my copies of Misty of Chincoteague, The Magnificent Barb,My Friend Flicka, et al. Around the same time, I was weeping over some of the Jack London dog stories, as well as Lassie Come Home. I still have a weakness for both horses and dogs -- have owned 7 of the latter....

Cindy, around the 6th grade, I was horse-crazy, as were a lot of my friends. We went to horse shows and demanded riding lessons. I still have my copies of Misty of Chincoteague, The Magnificent Barb,My Friend Flicka, et al. Around the same time, I was weeping over some of the Jack London dog stories, as well as Lassie Come Home. I still have a weakness for both horses and dogs -- have owned 7 of the latter....

Sorry! Did not mean this to post itself twice!

Cindy - RodMcKeun - and listening to his "records" as well. I still have his books on my bookshelf...keep wanting to toss them, but then I get sentimental (my husband gave me some of them when we were dating) and I can't do it. All they are is dust collectors. The kids will laugh their heads off when they are cleaning out the estate!

Hang on to those records - there is always a bit of room for sentiment. Reading these posts has made me smile and brought back a lot of memories. Let's just say - ditto! Dogs, horses, animals...I read everything I could get my hands on in my early teens, including all of those mentioned. Also loved the film of Lad, must have seen it five times in the local theater.

talk about dust collectors-the china horses lined up on the shelf or dresser-needing to be carefully dusted with tissues lest they topple over! Mine are still carefully wrapped in a box in my parents' attic, along with all the horse books I asked for for birthdays and Chirstmases-when I grew out of them, I still kept them in case my someday DD liked horses-she, however, was an athlete of the kicking and throwing kind, and went riding once in her childhood-it was okay but didn't need to be repeated ever again! Neither of my nieces were horsey, either-maybe my someday grandaughter.....??????

Oh I love James Herriot. Reading these books is such a comforting escape. It takes me to a place where I could bring my dogs along anywhere I pleased and people didn't mind, where the most complicated thing in the world was negotiating the roads on the upper hills in the snow, and the problems of the world seem so far away. It's a place I like to visit when I think I've had enough of my own world.

Siobhan, a belated thanks for the post on the dog book that you posted on a different thread. I am definitely going to check it out and read it with a dog on each side of me (one is 90 pounds, the other 125), a big ol' blanket (since my part of the world feels like autumn and not late spring) and a cuppa tea.

PAM

I'm glad, Pam, I think you will really enjoy that book. I can't believe I have already read it twice. "Orange Snarly Magic" by Jennifer Sexton and "Seven Reasons Not To Get A Dog" by Marion Winik have each been read by me multiple times. It's autumnal here, too, complete with blowing leaves!

"It takes me to a place where I could bring my dogs along anywhere I pleased"

Didn't Herriot relate an incident where a farmer shot a girl's dog because she let it run around in his field?

cjoseph,
I believe you are right, but I was actually referring to walking around town on Market Day with dogs ambling beside me. Besides, it works better in my imagination if we simply forget about that farmer.

Siobhan, If I can't get it through my library, I may have to add that dog book my personal collection. I have another two books of collected dog stories around here someplace that I should just double-check before buying a third. Who knows... with my recent lack of cataloging and poor organizational habits of late, I may already own it. I'll keep you posted, and will definitely flip to the two stories you recommend straight off.
PAM

It's a fairly new book, just published this year, so you probably don't have it. (Very scared about someone actually spending money on a book on my recommendation!)

I love All Creatures Great and Small, both the books and the TV series. And I don't think they are schmaltzy! As a girl, I read a lot of dog and horse books. I was especially fond of Albert Payson Terhune, whose mother was a famous Victorian author--Marian Harland--she wrote dozens of books and was a household name. As for horses, I read all those mentioned above but especially loved the Black Stallion series and to a lesser extent, the Island Stallion series by the same author, I think. Of course, nothing ever compared to Nancy Drew....

Hang onto those china horses, and check out the prices on EBay before you dispose of them -- the prices may astonish you.

Brenda

I usually avoid dog stories because they're traditionally sad and I'm a total weeping wimp when it comes to sad animal stories. However, I was thrilled to find Jon Katz, who writes about his life with Border Collies (we've had two and they're wonderful, demanding, scary-smart dogs). A Dog Year: 12 Months, Four Dogs, and Me and The Dogs of Bedlam Farm : An Adventure with Sixteen Sheep, Three Dogs, Two Donkeys, and Me were terrific, IMO. I could even deal with the (very few) sad bits.

Another dog story that pleasantly surprised me was a YA book/movie, Because of Winn Dixie. I was so sure it would end sadly, and it didn't (earning a great big HOORAY from this reviewer, lol).

I'm definitely getting the James Herriot books for my DD, I think she'll really love them.

I read a series of books by Derek Tangye - he and his wife chucked life in the fast lane to live and work on a Cornish flower farm. The books center around the many animals, especially cats, that shared their challenging life. Also donkeys, geese, wild birds, a dog or two, and probably a few others that I can't remember off the top of my head. The downside - I found them to be almost unbearably sad. Tangye writes movingly of the inevitable deaths of the animals, and of his wife also. I actually became somewhat depressed for a time after reading them. Perhaps just a bit too much death for me, made harder by the fact that everything really happened and I can't say to myself, 'it's just a story.' However, with that caveat, you might enjoy them very much.

Cindy: I did. I used to suffer from ear infections every winter and would lie in bed reading all the great paperback books Mum bought for me as "surprises." I especially remember that, besides Black Beauty, I enjoyed a book about an Irish retriever, and another in which 3 or 4 girls were visiting a ranch out West somewhere and each had her own horse to ride. Then there was the old book a cousin gave me, "The Adventure Girls at K-Bar-O. Sort of a young-girls-ride-around-on-horses-and-solve-a-mystery type of story. There were other horse and dog stories, too. Oh, how I longed for a dog and a horse in those days! But what I got was a cat, and I became a life-long cat lover.

How on earth did I miss this thread 'til now?! LOL

Anyway, I was also one of those dog/horse/cat crazy kids. And kept it up all the way thru adulthood. (I'm one of those fortunate ones who works with critters as a career). I read every, and I'm pretty sure truly, every animal book my largish town library had. ALL the Walter Farley, Marguerite Henry, Albert P. Terhune books, etc etc etc.... I read Old Yeller, Black Beauty, Flicka, and The Yearling, and steeled myself from crying too awfully hard...(and got pretty ticked at "The Red Pony" when the dang pony died and you still have half the book to go, it seemed!) The Irish Setter books were Jim Kielgaard's Big Red series. I loved Ernest Thomapson Seton books on wildlife, which nearly launched me into being a naturalist...and Jack London's stories which didn't deter me from that fantasy! I had the Breyer horses(ahem, I also still have boxes in the attic - my DD also declined them, phooey on her); the dog figurines of all sorts,(which I still collect and display)and drew and drew and drew dog after horse after tiger....

I also branched into the science essay/animal connection books in jr high school - like Lewis Thomas' "Lives of a Cell". The James Herriot books didn't come out til my teen years, but I thoroughly enjoyed them. I recognize that there is some "artistic license", but on the other hand I also recognize some patients and clients even now!!

I discovered Jon Katz's books within just the last year or two, and have enjoyed them immensely. I have struggled in these middle-aged years to find books that didn't either remind me too much of my work in a negative sense, or that I had the emotional reserve to read (for instance, I've tried twice to read Carolyn Knapp's "Pack of Two", and just can't get thru it). Katz' books have the right touch of humor to help me through them.

And of course, in another "animal" way, there's nothing like "The Far Side" !!!

take care
litlbit