James Herriot is the pen name for James Alfred Wight, OBE (1916-1995), a British veterinary surgeon and writer 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 TV attractions.

The version of the book I read (with photographs by Derry Brabbs) was published in 1979 by Mermaid Books. As with most people who have read and enjoyed James Herriot’s stories of a large-animal and a small-animal vet in the Yorkshire region of England, I learned about his stories when friends recommended four of his books to me. They were, in order of publication: All Creatures Great and Small (1972), All Things Bright and Beautiful (1974), All Things Wise and Wonderful (1977), and The Lord God Made Them All (1981). Those familiar with the refrain of Hymn 147 in the United Methodist Hymnal (words 1848, music 17th century) will note that he interchanged the first two phrases of this refrain, which seems appropriate in order to begin with creatures, great and small. In addition to book 335 and the four books just named, he has written nine other books, according to the web site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herriot which I suggest (for brevity) for more information on him.

Although it was in the early 1980s when my wife and I read the four “story” books named above, when I read James Herriot’s Yorkshire, many pleasant memories of his descriptions of the Yorkshire countryside and villages came back to my mind. Unfortunately, the only parts of Yorkshire that my wife and I had explored was the ancient city of York, which had been under Viking rule for many decades and is the site of the stupendous church named Minster of York, which “dwarfs the city and everything around it.” Herriot says it can be seen for over 30 miles away to the north. But nearly all the rest of this “picture book” focuses on the landscape, including the villages and small towns, the moors, and the many hills and valleys that the author often explored during his decades as a Yorkshire country vet. The fact that he was an avid hiker led to the inclusion of beautiful panoramic landscape and close-up photos that make up much more than half of this book.

I believe that there are three groups of people for whom this book would be a very special treat: (1) those who have been to Yorkshire and explored many of the delightful places Herriot describes in the text that accompanies the color photos, (2) those like me who have read his delightful stories and/or enjoyed the entertaining TV series based on them, and (3) those like me who have perhaps only seen a small part of Yorkshire – some on foot and some more from a train, like my wife and I saw traveling between York, England, and Glasgow, Scotland, in 1993. For these three groups, this book will reawaken and fire up their memories of a wonderful part of England. Perhaps I should add a fourth group – those who are planning a trip to England that may involve a trip from London to Scotland. Although not the shortest route, the route we took in 1993 from London to Scotland with stops of a few days each at Cambridge and at York is highly recommended by us. I spent a very pleasant 2-3 hours first reading this book, then the next day another two hours enjoying it again. With James Herriot’s smooth way with words, I’ll bet that any book by him would introduce you to a fascinating place and lifestyle (unless, of course, you are already a country vet in Yorkshire!).