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The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father by James Wight
Book Summary InformationAuthor: James Wight Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2001-05-01 ISBN: 0345434900 Number of pages: 384 Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My FatherBook Review: A wonderful insight into James Herriot! Summary: 5 Stars
Well do I remember the day back in the 1980s when I stopped in Thirsk on my way from York to Edinburgh. As we headed for the door of the most famous veterinary surgery in the world just to stand and look at it, a local man passed us. The expression on his kind face was amused, as if he knew a secret that we didn't. Our stunned reaction was the same - was that who we thought it was? By the time we concurred and turned to have a second look, he had disappeared into the alleyway behind the building. That man was none other than James Herriot! I received the biograpy of James Herriot as a gift from a friend who knew I loved his books. I was going to Europe, and one of the tour stops (all too brief) was once again to be in Thirsk. I was captured the moment I opened the book and read the first paragraph of the introduction. But before digging into the meat of the story, I had to study the pictures, and I referred to those pictures regularly as I read and was reintroduced to James & Helen, Sigfried & Tristan, and met other characters - in particular, the many pets that Alf Wight called his own. It got a little embarrassing as I read the book on tour because suddenly I'd burst out laughing in front of everyone - or worse yet, dissolve into tears! The story is told with a warmth and humor that, like the James Herriot books, makes the reader run the gamut of emotion. Yet unlike the Herriot books, the reader knows that this is "the rest of the story", the behind-the-scenes truth that created the basis for Herriot's books. The book portrays Alf Wight as a humble, hard-working person, persisting in the attempt to achieve his goal of writing a book despite numerous disappointments, a man whose greatest ambition was his occupation as a veterinarian, who did not let stardom get in the way of his love of his work or his love of the beautiful area in which he lived. In a day where so many capitalize on their stardom, it is refreshing to know that Alf Wight was totally unaffected by it, continuing to do what he loved the most. Thank you, Jim Wight, for giving such an honest and wonderful insight into "The Real James Herriot"!
Summary of The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My FatherNo one is better poised to write the biography of James Herriot than the son who worked alongside him in the Yorkshire veterinary practice when Herriot became an internationally bestselling author. Now, in this warm and poignant biography, Jim Wight ventures beyond his father's life as a veterinarian to reveal the man behind the stories--the private individual who refused to allow fame and wealth to interfere with his practice or his family. With access to all of his father's papers, correspondence, manuscripts, and photographs--and intimate recollections of the farmers, locals, and friends who populate the James Herriot books--only Jim Wight could write this definitive biography of the man who was not only his father but his best friend. The name Alf Wight may not ring too many bells, but as James Herriot--the author who brought the British countryside into millions of homes--Wight certainly made an impressive mark. He grew up in Glasgow and enjoyed a boisterous childhood before deciding to embark on many years of training at the Glasgow Veterinary College. Wight finally qualified as a vet in 1939 and moved to the Yorkshire town of Thirsk to accept a position as assistant to Dr. Donald Sinclair--the man known to millions of readers as Siegfried Farnan. The story of the young vet travelling to Thirsk (a.k.a. Darrowby) was immortalized in Herriot's bestselling books. But The Real James Herriot, Jim Wight's affectionate biography of his father, tells the story of the man behind the nom de plume, who worked in the same practice for over 50 years and was relatively untouched and unimpressed by his fame as an author. Wight the younger (who followed in his father's footsteps and later joined the practice in Thirsk), is undoubtedly the best person to reveal the depths of a man whose public persona was as respected and trusted as the real man who tended to animals in and around the small Yorkshire village where he lived until the day he died. Written with a tenderness that does nothing to detract from the honesty of the book, The Real James Herriot is a fitting, poignant, and often gently humorous portrait of a man who brought so much pleasure through his writing while remaining consistently faithful to the profession that was, ultimately, his first and last love. --Susan Harrison, Amazon.co.uk
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