The Real James Herriot

A Memoir of My Father

By: Jim Wight

Narrated by: Liam Price

No one is better poised to write the biography of James Herriot than the son who worked alongside him in the Yorkshire veterinary practice when Herriot became an internationally bestselling author. Now, in this warm and poignant memoir, Jim Wight talks about his father—the beloved veterinarian whom his family had to share with half the world.

Alf Wight (aka James Herriot) grew up in Glasgow, where he lived during a happy childhood and then through the challenging years of training at the Glasgow Veterinary College. The story of how the young vet later traveled to the small Yorkshire town of Thirsk, aka Darrowby, to take the job of assistant vet is one that is well known through James Herriot's internationally celebrated books and the popular All Creatures Great and Small television series.

But Jim Wight's biography ventures beyond the trials and tribulations of his father's life as a veterinarian to reveal the man behind the stories—the private individual who refused to allow fame and wealth to interfere with his practice or his family. With access to all of his father's papers, correspondence, manuscripts, and photographs—and intimate remembrances of all the farmers, locals, and friends who populate the James Herriot books—only Jim Wight could write this biography of the man who was not only his father but his best friend.

©1999 Jim Wight (P)2024 Tantor Media

The storyline was very interesting

The reader ended sentences in an up note instead of down note. It was hard to listen.

great story, odd cadence

I've listened to all the James Herriot stories and relished getting to know the real Alf Wight but it was a struggle. The material is captivating enough to get over the narrator's cringy cadence but just barely.

Wonderful book, but narration isn't great

I wasn't able to finish this audiobook because the narration was irritating to me. The accents and dialects of characters was well-done, but the constant sing-song of the narrator was wearing. So, I'm now reading the book and enjoying it very much.

Narrator is the worst I have ever heard

I am not sure I can’t even finish this because the narration is so poor. This is the first time I have ever wanted to get my money back after buying an audible book. The story is fantastic, but I cannot seem to get past the narrator.

Jim Wights love for his father and the good life hw lived

Nothing I am pleased w the entire book . His son painted a picture of a man who felt
Deeply but loved his Dales and his job so much