All Things Wise and Wonderful

World War II is under way, and James Herriot is away from his Yorkshire practice, training for the Royal Air Force. Whenever he can, he travels home to the dales to see his wife, Helen, who is very pregnant.

Between postings and visits, James looks back on earlier adventures as a country vet. He calls on old friends and meets a fresh crop of characters, some of them animals and some of them people, each with their own oddities.

This is a memoir told as a series of anecdotes, with a warm, comic tone and an eye for human and animal foibles. It reads easily and gently, with humor running through the wartime backdrop.

It is the third collection in the All Creatures Great and Small series, following the first two volumes about his life as a Yorkshire animal doctor. In the UK it was first printed as two books: Vets Might Fly, and Vet in a Spin.