Customer Reviews

The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father

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I waited eagerly for 8 months to receive this book, then I had to wait another week before I could open the pages without weeping. The first two paragraphs in the Prologue are enough to set me off: "On that day a great friend had died. His name was James Alfred Wight, a father in whose company I had spent countless happy hours. A man I shall never forget."

We have all lost a great friend in Alf Wight. How many countless happy hours have we spent with James Herriot, either in books or TV shows? Indeed none of us will ever forget him. I wish I had been able to meet him.

I would like to thank Jim Wight personally for writing this book. He expresses his first feelings of misgiving about trying to live up to his father's excellent writing, but he need not have worried. He tells about a boyhood friend of Alf's who jumps out of a second floor window with an umbrella. "The old umbrella suddenly turned inside out and, accompanied by the screaming boy, zoomed to the ground." This could have come straight off James Herriot's pen.

Alf Wight had a huge heart, and it seems that his son does, too. It is clear that he misses his father terribly. He presents Alf as a perfectly ordinary person who was astonished at his own fame, and who still remained "99% vet." This book shows the good and the bad of Alf Wight, his family and his friends. And yet I came away still in love with Siegfried, Tristan, and all the rest. And still totally devoted to James Herriot.

Thank you, Jim.

For those of us who grew up watching ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL on PBS and who delighted in James Herriot's books, this biography of Alf Wight, the real name of the writer James Herriot, is fascinating, heart-warming, and wonderful.

What makes this book so good is that the author is Jim Wight, Alf's son and later partner in his vet practice. Jim describes Alf's life with real insight and shares his own opinions when discussing key characters in Alf's books. Jim talks about Donald and Brian, the real people behind Siegfried and Tristan, and the various farmers and family members with definite love; he knew them and worked with them, too.

This book is not just a collection of facts; it is a real tribute to the life of the man known to most of us as James Herriot. Jim's insights into his father and his life are extremely interesting, and the gentleness of his father's writings has surely filtered down to his son. Certainly, Jim writes critically, but he also writes with affection and understanding.

I cannot think of a more fitting memoir for Alf Wight. His vision of the world is unique, and his son's tribute to him, both a biography and a personal memoir, could not be better. Through Jim's book, we can see just how true Alf's descriptions are - and how lucky we are to have them.

I definitely recommend this book to all fans of James Herriot.

It is clear from this book that Jim Wight, like his famous father, doesn't like to say negative things about anybody, but this is a thoroughly honest book that includes information available nowhere else, and it is quite detailed. It makes the hoped-for identifications of what real individuals paralleled characters and how they reacted to their portrayals (Tristan loved his portrayal and Siegfried was so unhappy he actually threatened to sue!), and is honest about the embellishments in stories as well. It doesn't shy away from describing very bad times in the personal life of Herriot.

The bottom line is that any fan of James Herriot will truly enjoy reading this book, gain real insight about the man, and enjoy going back and reading the story books with the knowledge gained from this biography.

If you have read and enjoyed the "James Herriot" books, like I did, you will enjoy this intimate biography of the real James Herriot, Alf Wight, written by his son.

Although I have read all his books, I never thought too much about the real man behind them, but reading "The Real James Herriot" has a awakened a tremendous appreciation for one of my favorite authors. Too often after reading a biography of one of my favorite authors I found that their lives did not quite measure up to their books, but with this author I found quite the opposite, I found myself in awe of this modest and unassuming man.

My first reaction upon finishing this book was how unusually nice it is for a son to write so well of his father, and it certainly made me stop and think about my relationship with my own children. What greater tribute can a person have that his children should think so highly of them, should write with such love and devotion about a parent? How rare it is today (or at least psychologists would have us believe that it is rare) for a son to follow in his father's profession, working in the same practice, living just miles away, with hardly an unkind word for his father?

This book is an anti-dote for all those "dark" books, where the worst of human nature is emphasized again and again, and it is refreshing to read about a "normal", happy person, with a devoted wife and family, a humble and modest man who succeeded in life beyond his wildest dreams. A man who, upon making millions when his books hit the bestseller list, refused to change his lifestyle one iota, preferring to continue in the vocation and place (the Yorkshires) he loved rather than turn into one of the "rich and famous". Who, as someone who had idealized the beautiful Yorkshire country in his books, was someone who actually lived the way he wrote - why go on vacation, when I have everything I could want, right here?

A beautiful biography of a wonderful person, and highly recommended for anyone, especially a "James Herriot" fan.

I am a longtime fan of the BBC television series and devoured this satisfying short biography in one sitting. I was expecting disappointment -- can reality ever live up to our inner visions of beloved fiction?, I asked myself.

I came away believing that Alf Wight, the "real James Herriot", is, if anything, more interesting than his fictional alter ego. Most interesting to me was the account of the long and secret apprenticeship Wight undertook as a writer. Here is the story of a truly great man who shared a priceless gift with the world but who also remained unchanged by his success.

Jim Wight has a warm and endearing style, revealing a fuller picture of this kind and gentle man, his father. The content is fascinating, taking the reader, again, to the beauty of the Yorkshire dales and moors, bringing tears of laughter and episodes of touching reality of simpler times that so many of us long for. Through this book, Wight shares with the reader many more events in his father's most interesting life. We come to know James Herriot more intimately, even after his death. The narrative is a beautiful tribute to a deep love of a son for a father. While reading "The Real James Herriot...", ever present was the memory of my unexpected chance meeting with him while walking along the path in front of his home a few years ago. This book reveals the gracious, polite and feeling man we were introduced to all those years ago in "All Creatures Great and Small".

It was with shock and sadness that I learned a couple yers ago that James Herriot (actually Alf Wight) had died in 1995. While I never quite managed to appreciate his veterinary stories, I was totally charmed by the TV series and had somehow just assumed he would live forever. Well, in a way, he does in the TV series and, of course, in his popular books. And now, he lives in his son Jim's fine memoir of his father. I was curious about the man behind the books and the TV series and "The Real James Herrit" answered many of my questions. It is a warm book that will choke you up in places. I wish there was more insight into making the TV series but that is not really a flaw as apparently that did not involve James Herriot that much. Here you will find the real James, Seigfried, Tristan and wife Joan. It's quite a story and well worth it for the Herriot fan and any one interested in knowing about a brilliant, hard-working, lovely man.

This is a poignant and earthy memoir of a man beloved by his family and friends as much as by his countless thousands of fans the world over. James Wight, son of the famous "James Herriot", does an admirable job of filling in the often less than idyllic real-world background for an idyllic life and phenomenal literary success, without spoiling the effect of a humble, sensitive, and rewarding life. James Herriot often averred that he was 99% vet, and 1% writer, but he was 100% human, and beloved for his warmth and concern for all creatures great and small. I thoroughly enjoyed this book as an insightful and readable account of the Yorkshire vet known the world over, and find it a fitting conclusion to the Herriot stories. How pleasant to think that it might also be the beginning of a literary career for yet another "Herriot", as James Wight's aptitude with the written word moves the account along admirably, and does his father proud.

This was the first biography that I can remember reading in decades. I've usually found biographies to be rather dry. In this case, however, "little Jimmy" has inherited some of his father's writing ability. Having enjoyed the books and the TV series I was very pleased to enjoy the biography as much. While fans of the "James Herriot" books know they are not largely autobiographical, it was fun to be let in on how James Wight got his stories and what the real stories were.

If you've read and enjoyed Wight's books and/or seen and enjoyed the TV series, pick up this book. I hope and expect that for "All Creatures Great and Small" James' son is following in his father's footsteps as a Vet as well as he's done as a writer of this book.

As a loyal fan of the James Herriot books, I had to read more about the man behind the stories. This biography fully satisfied me, and by the end of the book, I could feel all the deep and abiding love his children hold for Alf Wight, as well as the great legacy the man has left to the world. The author provides a lot of insight into his father's life and his ideals, as well as his loyalty to the profession of veternary surgeon. By mid-book, I was hooked into pulling for this man to be recognized and rewarded for all his hard work through the years. Even though I have already read his original books, I sought them out again to reread after finishing this biography. James Wight proves to be gifted in relating his father's story. His father would be proud.