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James Herriot

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Herriot’s former surgery in Thirsk is now a tourist attraction.
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Herriot’s former surgery in Thirsk is now a tourist attraction.

James Herriot is the pen name of Alfred Wight, also known as Alf Wight (3 October 1916 – 23 February 1995), a British veterinary surgeon and writer.

Contents

Biography

Wight was born in England, but was only three weeks old when his parents moved to Glasgow in Scotland where he attended Yoker Primary School and Hillhead High School.

In 1939, at the age of twenty-three, he qualified as a veterinary surgeon from Glasgow Veterinary College. The following year he found work in a rural practice based in the town of Thirsk, close to the North York Moors in England, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. On 5 November 1941, he married Joan Catherine Anderson Danbury. The couple had two children, James (Jim) who also became a vet and was a partner in the practice, and Rosie who became a medical doctor. Jim still practices in Thirsk, whilst his sister Rosie is retired, having worked for many years as a general practitioner in Thirsk.

In 1969 Alf 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. In his books, he calls the town where he lives, which he based largely on the towns of Thirsk and Leyburn, Darrowby.

Living above the surgery in Kirkgate, Thirsk, in the early years, he moved with his wife to live in a house on Topcliffe Road, Thirsk, opposite the secondary school. The house is now in private ownership and not open to members of the public. He later moved with his family to the village of Thirlby, about 4 miles from Thirsk, where he lived until his death.

The books, which told of the many comic and illustrative incidents which happened to him or to people he knew, were enormously popular, and by the time of his death he was one of the foremost best-selling authors in both Britain and the United States. Despite his authorial success, he continued practising until a few years before his death with his colleague Donald Sinclair. Owing in part to the British law forbidding veterinary surgeons from advertising, he took a pen name, choosing "James Herriot" after seeing the Scottish goalkeeper Jim Herriot play exceptionally well for Birmingham City in a televised game against Manchester United. He also renamed Donald and his brother Brian, Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, respectively.

His books were adapted into two films and a long-running BBC television programme; for more information about these adaptations, see All Creatures Great and Small.

The popularity of the books and their adaptations have inspired many to become vets themselves.

He died in 1995 in the Lambert Memorial Hospital in Thirsk.

Bibliography

Books

Omnibus editions

In the United States, Herriot's novels were considered too short to publish independently, and so several pairs of novels were collected into omnibus volumes. The title All Creatures Great and Small was taken from the second line of the hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful, and inspired by a punning suggestion from Herriot's daughter, who thought the book should be called Ill Creatures Great and Small.

See also

External links

 

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