Veterinary practice in the 1950s was all about grappling with farm
animals in sub-zero temperatures. Not a very appealing
notion; but James Herriot makes it sound happy and fulfilling. In Every Living Thing, as in all his other seven books about life as a vet, he looks at the bright side of bringing sick
animals back to health, be it with a cold wind howling at his elbow or with sunshine picking out the green fields in the Yorkshire Dales that were literally his theatre.
While London was covered in smog and soot from coal-burning stoves in the 1950s (the period about which he writes), Yorkshire air was pristine and fresh-smelling. And he describes his feelings: “It was good to be able to work with animals in this thrilling countryside; I was lucky to be a vet in the Yorkshire Dales.”
Every Living Thing is a collection of connected stories that could be read individually or as part of a larger picture. All of them are set in the fictional town of Darrowby and are about animals and their owners. The stories are based on the real life experiences of Herriot, whose actual name is Alfred Wight Sunderland.
What makes Herriot’s stories so enjoyable is that he is able to extract the essence of personality, be it human or
animal, in his narration of one incident, usually a visit to treat a sick animal.
Take for instance the tale about a gargantuan short-tempered dog ironically named Puppy, who lives off potato chips. When Puppy falls ill, getting him to swallow a tranquilizer in order to operate on him puts Herriot and his partner Siegfried in a dilemma. The dog won’t have the medicine in minced meat and no one is brave enough to get anywhere close to the huge creature without first sedating it. Then an idea strikes…
Every Living Thing is not just about fresh air and animals, it is also about interesting people and a disappearing way of life: Geoff Hatfield who makes selling candy seem like a fine art by putting in a lot of thought choosing just the right kind of sweet for the ladies who flock his shop or the cross-legged tailor Bendelow whose needle rarely manages to ‘dig into any fabric’ because he’s busy edifying someone on matters domestic or otherwise.
You will also meet Herriot’s interesting colleagues in Every Living Thing: his partner Seigfried, the cool collected John Crooks and Calum Buchanan who maintains an unusual menagerie of badgers, dogs and owls.