James Herriot is one of my all-time favorite fiction authors. Herriot (pen name of James Alfred Wight) started as an English country vet in 1940 and used his experiences to write a series of books, this one being the third. This book centers around the time he served in the Royal Air Force, but the majority of the stories are flashbacks to his life as a vet. Some memorable stories are the “butcher” dentist who knocks out airmen’s teeth with a hammer and chisel and the man who commits suicide when his dog dies.
I have always found Herriot's writing to be superb and his characters real and vividly memorable. Each chapter of his books are fairly self-contained stories that always leave me with some strong emotion. While the stories center around animals, the books examine human nature. This is a series I visit regularly and always enjoy.
For anyone interested, the audiobook version of this series as read by Christopher Timothy is flawless. His interpretation of Tristan Farnon is brilliantly hilarious.
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