A review by seclement
All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot

5.0

This is just the sort of book an insomniac like me needs to read before bed. Herriot's England is definitely the one everyone romanticised, and I wonder if it ever existed. I suppose it did, for a brief period of time and for a small number of people. Herriot is a great writer, flowing between poignant and funny, while all the while informing you of practices that kept the countryside running before the Second World War. Even at the time he was writing this, much of it was a distant memory, so surely there are some rose-coloured glasses there, but he certainly doesn't sugar coat the difficult aspects of life as a country vet. Having a hand up a cow and getting kicked by an ungulate seems to be a daily occurrence. I found it particularly interesting to read about the old "cures" that didn't really work and the old men who believed in diseases that never existed like "stagnation of the lungs". Funnily enough, I know that homeopathy is still kicking around in the veterinary world, but I think that few who had lived through James Herriot's time and saw revolutionary medical advances would be quite so keen to take modern medicine for granted.

This book is a pleasure to read, and the perfect book before bed in the dark days of winter.