All Creatures Great and Small    by James Herriot Order:  USA  Can Macmillan Audio, 2021 (2021) Softcover, Paperback, Audio, e-Book      Reviewed by Hilary Williamson James Herriot's memoirs of his experiences as a veterinarian in rural Yorkshire have sold eighty million copies worldwide! I remember the joy of reading these books five decades ago, so was delighted to have the opportunity to listen to a new audiobook (15 hours and 23 minutes) of All Creatures Great and Small. James Herriot died in 1995. It's narrated by Nicholas Ralph, who also stars in the successful PBS Masterpiece series, which I am now very anxious to watch. He does a fine job with a broad variety of English accents as well as Herriot's soft Scottish one, and brings the author's lyrical descriptions of the Yorkshire Dales to vibrant life. We meet the young, keen, inexperienced Herriot in 1937 on his first case - half naked, face down in muck and cobbles, arms inside a cow, fighting for two hours to safely extract a calf, the only light shed by a dim oil lamp held by the farmer. That gives an early sense of the hard labor in challenging environments involved in the role of a country vet. James had traveled from Glasgow to join Siegfried Farnon's Yorkshire practice as an assistant veterinarian. He lives with the rather eccentric Siegfried at Skeldale House in the village of Darrowby. Mrs Audrey Hall is their housekeeper and they're soon joined by Siegfried's lively and lazy younger brother Tristan, a new graduate who joins the practice. Listeners share the young veterinarian's trials and disasters, hopes and disappointments, middle of the night emergencies - and humorous moments - as the practice (which deals with pets as well as farm animals) grows slowly but steadily. There's even a developing romance (that Siegfried encourages) between James and lovely farmer's daughter Helen Alderson. All Creatures Great and Small: The Warm and Joyful Memoirs of the World's Most Beloved Animal Doctor took me back in time - both the time so well depicted in the memoirs, and the time in my life when I pounced on and read each of Herriot's heartwarming books as it came out. If you missed them in the 70s, don't miss them now. If you read them before, you'll enjoy these new presentations. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more NonFiction books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews