All Creatures Great and Small
Series: All Creatures Great and Small, Book 1
By: James Herriot / Narrated By: Christopher Timothy
Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
How did it take me so long to get around to listening to this?
Considering I’m all starry-eyed about animals, one would think I’d have listened to it long ago. (And full disclosure? My mom handed me a copy of the book when I was a reading-crazed kid… but I never got past the first 25 pages… yes, I’m NOT proud of how scattered I was as a youngster).
All I remember is the opening: Barnyard animal having a difficult, and disgusting, birthing. I guess I just couldn’t get past the blood and placenta?
But it was all riveting as I listened to it here in a new millennium and at the latter half of my life. And to think, this was all supposed to be taking place in the 30s when there were no antibiotics or C-sections, when tuberculosis could fell an entire herd (Wikipedia, however, says the cases that inspired the stories actually took place in the 60s/70s so hmmmmm…).
Set in the fictional town of Darrowby, Herriot is taken in as an assistant by the ever-eccentric Siegfried Farnon who also tutors him in the ways of rural life and of rural people in general. There are quirky characters, lovable animals, heroics galore. There are also the cases that shame and don’t turn out as Herriot would’ve wished. And there’s the dueling Tristan Farnon, Siegfried’s ne’er-do-well brother who is quite likable, especially when the pigs get out and make a dash for the market.
I suppose that the weakest part is the narration which doesn’t mean that the narration is bad by any stretch. Christopher Timothy (and I did wonder why there was a British narrator rather than a Scottish one as Herriot is raised and studies in Scotland… would it be an utterly incomprehensible accent?) does a fantastic job with the many, many, MANY characters, and he doesn’t do anything silly with female voices, especially Helen, James’s main love-interest. He does wacky interchanges between daft family members, does tightfisted ol’ farmers trying to scheme their way outta paying their bills, does Siegfried and all his contrary ways, well. But here’s the thing: Timothy does it all in such serious tones that a lot of the whimsy and wackiness and just plain humor is lost. The first date scene involving Herriot, Helen, a low-water crossing, and a pair of saucy slippers could’ve been hiLARious, hiLARious, I tell you. But it wasn’t. It induced a chuckle, to be quite sure, but we’re talking close to 16 hours of listening time. More levity would’ve been very, very nice.
You can’t go wrong with All Creatures Great and Small if you’re fond of animals, tho’ it’s more personal memoir than animal stories, and you’ll find mostly those wayward barnyard waifs rather than dogs and cats—The stories of certain dogs, however, may have you laughing some here, with a tear in your eye there (cuz all lives come to an end). And if you don’t mind the farming mindset which always dictates that if it looks bad, it’s time for the slaughterhouse, you’re in for a really sweet time, stripped of complexity, and definitely stripped of profanity.
It was, after all, a much more innocent time…!
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