With regard to the veterinarian episodes presented in All Things Wise and Wonderful, while I have personally found them as wonderful, as entertaining and as evocative as the first two James Herriot omnibuses (and consider the author's memoirs comfort reading pure), I do leave a bit of a potential caveat that there indeed are some rather heavy-duty and sad scenarios portrayed (such as the suicide of a dog owner who cannot handle that his faithful canine companion has had to be euthanised). Shep leaps onto unsuspecting visitors from a hiding place in the garden, and he does so to Herriot, when the veterinarian is deep in thought.

Harriot is the quinetessential author who captures the essence of Yorkshire countryside through his delightful depictions of the people, landscape, and of course the animals. Herriot may not be the most polished author but his books have a sense of warmth around them and I feel like I know Helen, Tristan, Siegfried and James. The animal characters also prevent Wight's stories from becoming twee or melodramatic — animals, unlike some humans, do not pretend to be ailing, nor have they imaginary complaints and needless fears.For the 1970 science fiction film Beneath the Planet of the Apes, composer Leonard Rosenman composed a discordant version of the hymn, rewritten for a dystopian cult who worship a nuclear bomb. Herriot 's love of his work, the animals he treats, his colleagues at Skeldale House and most of all, the amazing countryside around him, shine through with great warmth on every page. The veterinary facilities are not what he is accustomed to, and when a Golden Retriever comes in with a severed leg, Herriot has no idea how to treat the dog.

Many of Herriot’s works—including All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Things Wise and Wonderful, The Lord God Made Them All, and Every Living Thing—became international bestsellers and have been adapted for film and television.I wasn't feeling that complete absorption in this book or that same connection to the human and animal characters.