All Things Wise And Wonderful

All Things Wise and Wonderful

James Herriot

The book I read is called All Things Wise and Wonderful, written by James Herriot. This is the 3rd novel in a chain of five. These novels make a very interesting and famous poem.

All Things Bright and Beautiful,

All Creatures Great and Small,

All Things Wise and Wonderful,

The Lord God Made Them All.

This poem has all of James Herriot’s book titles. James Herriot was a Scottish veterinarian who lived in Scotland during the time of World War Two. You could say that this book is an autobiography because this really happened to him and he has written it.

In this book, James Herriot is at war in England. He is just like any of the other soldiers, doing pushups and working all day. When he has days off he likes to do his first career. This is as a veterinarian. He lives in Yorkshire, England and he goes to farms and people’s houses any time he can, just to help their animals.

It all starts with him at war, nothing real scary, just attending his regular duties. He seems to be very worried about his teeth because he is terrified of dentists. So he keeps his teeth in “tip top” condition. The Army was very strict about hygiene. Then he goes on about how he likes gentle dentists.

In the beginning of this exceedingly interesting book he starts to talk about women. He says that he likes women better than men, and I agree, because at this time in the English Army there where more men than women. The men would not stop cussing and yelling and acting like slobs. He missed the comfort of women.

James Herriot became a veterinarian because of his love for all the animals on this earth. He loves all animals and he knows how much an animal such as one out of twelve cows is worth to a farmer.

An incident that I found interesting in the book was when he went to a Gray Hound race. He was the substitute vet. He was given the orders to take out any dog that did not look fit to run.