Beauty and the Best (James Herriot's Yorkshire - James Herriot)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	James Herriot's Yorkshire - James Herriot
Date:	16/02/06 (203 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful Photos, warmly written

Disadvantages: You may find it boring

England is a beautiful country full of contrasts. We tend to lose sight of this fact sometimes, especially when penned up in some faceless, urban metropolis. Perhaps this is why so many associate so readily with TV programmes like “Heartbeat” and “All Creatures Great and Small”. I’ve made several trips to Yorkshire over the years taking in towns such as Halifax, Ripon and York and always been enchanted by this very English of counties. Personally, I think all towns should be just like York!

I acquired “James Herriot’s Yorkshire” a number of years ago in hardback format. The combination of Herriot’s charm and beguiling colour photographs of Yorkshire by Derry Brabbs have made the book one I’ve kept referring back to over the years when I’ve needed some soul food.

For those too young to remember, James Herriot is the actual vet that the long-running television series “All Creatures Great and Small” is based on. Something of an autobiographical account of his life and times in Yorkshire, the TV series brought pleasure to millions of viewers in the 1970’s and 80’s. Herriot himself was born in Sunderland in 1916. His family moved to Scotland later that year. James Herriot joined the Yorkshire practice of J. Donald Sinclair in 1940 and over the years, he has become synonymous with the county. This beautiful book is a homage to both the area and its people.

The book opens with a chapter about the author’s own interpretation of what Yorkshire means to him. Defining the county as “contained between two lines drawn from the heads of Coverdale and Swaledale, across the plain of York and over the Hambleton Hills and the North York Moors to the enchanting villages and towns of the east coast.” Herriot proceeds to write a sweeping but concise account of the towns, cities and dales that made such a mark on him whilst engaging in his career.

Highlights of the book for me include pretty much anything that the author includes of a descriptive nature and the tales drawn from his own experiences are always charming. When reminiscing about the wild country around Bradley and Woodale, Herriot’s power of description is typically exemplified by “This high country is just too bleak for some people but it is up there on the empty moors with the curlews crying that I have been able to find peace and tranquillity of mind.” Maybe it’s that almost Buddhist quality of sentiment that appeals to me in particular but the ability to paint a mental picture that compliments the great photography renders the book timeless.

Take a trip through Herriot’s literary imagination into the village of Wensley and you’ll see where the fictional character from the TV series was married. Take a journey to a grand old house on the corner of Reeth village and you’ll find yourself in Skeldale house where the cinema film “It shouldn’t Happen to a Vet” was filmed with John Alderton playing the author and vet on this occasion. Take a mental ramble to the windswept Watersplash and Langthwaite and you may be reminded of the opening shots of the “All Creatures Great and Small” TV series.

If York is beautiful then Richmond is simply adorable. With a shot taken from the top of a hill, Brabbs has captured the panorama of the town complete with roof-tops and spires, rows of houses and cobbled streets. The centre-piece is the ancient church built around 1150 as Herriot regales us of a brief history and then seamlessly slips in a link with his pet dog, Hector.

The book also has its practical uses. There’s a short chapter on youth hostels in the county as well as a rolling overview of major towns like Harrogate and York. These would hardly replace things like Rough Travel guides but it would give the reader a generalist picture of the main aspects of the area.

Herriot’s writing style is often charming, nearly always engaging and predominantly reflective. Interweaving his real life exploits with the land marks of the county, for anyone who loved the TV series or the books written by the author then you will find the chapters warm and endearing. Brabb’s photography is simply stunning. Capturing all of the seasons, from the river Swale in Spring to snowbound dales in the winter, the catalogue of photographs is a joy to behold.

Even the author’s postscript is suitable modest. “I have tried to paint a picture of my Yorkshire from the Pennines to the sea, but now that I have finished I feel that I have only flicked at the canvas with my brush”. In that one sentence, Herriot sums the book up as a generalist overview that could have run to thousands more words. In our case, the inclusion of so many lovely photos brings into play the phrase “every picture paints a thousand words”. Maybe simply looking at the gallery more than makes up for the author’s mild disappointment in only allowing a glimpse of such a sprawling part of Northern England.

The book consists of 32 chapters in all with anything between 2 up to 35 pages dividing them. The colour plates themselves take up whole pages at times and the narrative is concise so it doesn’t take long to read the book at all. In fact, I would say that you could get through the whole 222 pages in around an hour if you became spellbound by it. "James Herriot's Yorkshire" will appeal to adults mainly and mostly those with a love of the countryside. There is no restriction on who can read the book in the absence of any bad language or anything else that might be a barrier to a child reading it. Chances are, I’ll still reach for this book every time I want to return to one of the most beautiful counties in the land. I’ll also have a wonderful guide to transport me there even if it’s only in my mind’s eye. You can come too if you want.

Thanks for reading

Marandina

ISBN: 0-7181-1753-0

Available via sites like Amazon in both hardback and paperback. The hardback originally retailed at £14.95. You can now get it for $13.57 for a new paperback copy and from $1.50 for a used hardback copy.

Published by Michael Joseph Ltd.

More info about the author at http://www.jamesherriot.org/

Summary: Write up of the book