The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father

Name: The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father
Rating: 4 (8 reviews)

ISBN-10: 009183709X
ISBN-13: 9780091837099
Series: The Real James Herriot
Category: Herriot, James
Pages: 371
Language: English
Published: 2000
Author: Jim Wight

Description

James Herriot was one of the world's best-loved authors, selling more than 60 million copies of his books, including All Creatures Great and Small, and inspiring a very popular TV series of the same name. This book is a must for all Herriot lovers, telling as it does the story of the man behind the vet whose practice in the Yorkshire Dales inspired hundreds of hilarious and moving anecdotes. Fans everywhere mourned when he died in 1995. Herriot was the pen name of Alf Wight and in this engrossing book his son Jim, who practised alongside his father in their veterinary clinic, provides a unique insight into a man who was every inch the gentleman his readers knew, and into the rich inner life his books never hinted at. Jim Wight has created a loving tribute to his father, the master storyteller. Herriot always maintained that the stories in his laugh-out-loud books were 90% based on reality, and fans will find enormous enjoyment as Wight matches up the fictional characters with their real-life counterparts in and around the village of Thirsk. But this is not a one-dimensional view. Jim also details his father's breakdown early in his career, and his fight back against depression and self-doubt. He also paints an intimate portrait of the loving family man who remained modest to the end, despite his worldwide fame. This is a biography to be treasured.