James Herriot

2015-09-29 James Herriot was the pen name of James Alfred Wight (1916-10-03 – 1995-02-23), a veterinarian and writer. His best-known works are his semi-autobiographical stories, often referred to collectively as All Creatures Great and Small. Quotes On his fame "If a farmer calls me to a sick animal, he couldn't care less if I were George Bernard Shaw." On writing "For years I used to bore my wife over lunch with stories about funny incidents. The words 'My book,' as in 'I'll put that in it one day,' became a sort of running joke. Eventually she said, 'Look, I don't want to offend you, but you've been saying that for 25 years. If you were going to write a book, you'd have done it. You're never going to do it now. Old vets of 50 don't write books.' So I purchased a lot of paper right then and started to write."Margolis, Jonathan (Dec. 12, 2002). "But It Did Happen To A Vet". Time Magazine On being a vet "I love writing about my job because I loved it, and it was a particularly interesting one when I was a young man. It was like holidays with pay to me." "Years ago, farmers were uneducated and eccentric and said funny things, and we ourselves were comparatively uneducated. We had no antibiotics, few drugs. A lot of time was spent pouring things down cows' throats. The whole thing added up to a lot of laughs. There's more science now, but not so many laughs." On retirement "There was no last animal I treated. When young farm lads started to help me over the gate into a field or a pigpen, to make sure the old fellow wouldn't fall, I started to consider retiring. The great moment was one day when I was stitching up a cow's teats--they often get cut, you know--and my glasses were sliding down my nose. Suddenly I thought, Wight, you're too old for this. But it was a gradual transition. I just did less and less. It must be terrible to have a job you very much love chopped off." On cats "Cats are connoisseurs of comfort."Herriot James James Herriot's Cat Stories 1994 0-7181-3852-X (in the introduction and in "Moses Found Among the Rushes") On Geoff and Alfred He straightened up. This was a tough one. He folded his arms across his chest as he stared into space and took the long inhalation I remembered so well, I could see that he was a big man again, his shoulders spreading wide, his face ruddy and well-fleshed. Nothing having evolved from his cogitations, his jaw jutted and he turned his face upwards, seeking further inspiration from the Ceiling. Alfred, I noticed, looked upward, too. There was a tense silence as Geoff held his pose, then a smile crept slowly over his noble features. He raised a finger, "Madame," he said, "I do fancy I have it. Whitish, you said…something pink… rather squashy… May I suggest to you… marshmallow?" Mrs. Hird thumped the counter, "Aye,that’s it, Mr. Hatfield. I just couldn’t think of the t’name." "Ha-ha, thought so," boomed the proprietor, his organ tones rolling to the roof. He laughed, the ladies laughed, and I was positive that Alfred laughed too. All was well again. Everybody in the shop was happy — Geoff, Alfred, the ladies and, not least, James Herriot. w:Every Living Thing chapter 3 Quotes about James Alfred Wight [Wight] failed many of his classes on the first try: surgery, pathology, physiology, histology, even animal husbandry (which he failed twice) James Herriot facts for kids References Category:Novelists from England Category:1995 deaths Category:University of Glasgow alumni Category:Autobiographers from England Category:1916 births