Heart of Herriot

THE two men, both writers with their own particular style but united by a geographical region, were brought together again as winners in a poll marking the 60th anniversary of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Bill Mitchell, long-time editor of The Dalesman, was named the greatest living cultural icon. Alf Wight, read and known by millions around the world as story-telling vet James Herriot, won the same accolade in a second category, as an icon who had died but was still revered.

Mr Mitchell, who had interviewed Herriot during the course of writing for The Dalesman, hit on the idea of putting himself and the All Creatures Great And Small vet together in a book.

“Although it’s primarily about James Herriot, I did work a little bit of my own interest in the Dales into it,” he says.

Jim Wight, retired vet son of Alf Wight, wrote his own biography of his father and sees this new book as being a little different – “it’s a lot of pictures, including some very nice photos of dad, and it’s about life in Yorkshire over the last century essentially”.

As he writes in the foreword: “No one is better qualified to talk on this subject than Bill.

He draws on a lifetime of experience... living with, interviewing and writing about Yorkshire people. A man with unsurpassed knowledge and experience of Yorkshire country life, it is an evocative description of times gone by.

“Just as James Herriot has done, Bill Mitchell has preserved in print a part of our heritage that should never be forgotten.”

Mr Mitchell offers an up close and personal account of Alf Wight, who wrote nine James Herriot books that were made into a TV series (with Christopher Timothy) and two feature films. A play based on All Creatures Great And Small will open at the Gala Theatre, Durham City, at the end of this month, and the BBC is making a TV series about Wight’s early years in Glasgow.

What Wight didn’t do in the books was give much away about himself. Even his son admits that researching the biography he wrote about his father was an eye-opener. “I learnt all sorts of things about my dad that I didn’t know when he was alive,” he says.

Mr Mitchell’s portrait of “the real James Herriot”

resulted partly from a long interview with the vet that led from an invitation to open a craft circuit in Thirsk. “I thought this would be an opportunity to have a word with our friend Alf Wight, so I dropped him a note and he invited me along to see him,” recalls Mitchell.

“I went to his house in Thirlby. He had a little dog, a border terrier who sat on his feet. We just chatted and didn’t break, but we didn’t have questions and answers, we just went from one aspect to another.

“He had a lovely warm voice with a Scottish tinge. I’ve done hundreds of interviews, but this was a glorious friendly conversation lasting two hours and it was then I managed to get to the heart of the Herriot story.

“It filled in lots of information and made a rounded figure of him, as I was able to ask him about different aspects of his work. It happened towards the end of his life. In a relatively short time, he had died, so it was reflective time of his life.”

HE has also interviewed Jim Wight, who made many new photographs of Alf Wight, both at work and at home relaxing, available for the book, Herriot: A Vet’s Life.

“His biography of his father was a very notable achievement. He’s a lovely chap is Jim Wight and very co-operative with this book. I went along and did the same thing as his dad – put a tape recorder in front of him and chatted for a couple of hours about his father and veterinary matters.”

The Herriot books – the first not written until Alf Wight had turned 50 – remain popular all over the world. He may have been a late starter but, according to Mr Mitchell, was a natural writer. “His work just flowed. Most journalists will do something and then revise it a few times, but it seems to have flowed out of him and the books are pretty much as written by him.”

Son Jim, now retired from his vet’s practice in Thirsk, could be following in his father’s literary footsteps. Inevitably, perhaps, there has been continued pressure to put down his own memories in book form. “I’ve not done that, partly because I don’t want to step into my father’s shoes, because no one can write like him,” he says.

“I am thinking seriously about doing it, but I have my own style. Obviously there will be comparisons. All vets have material, everyone does whatever they do, but can you get them down like James Herriot?

“I’m walking about thinking of ideas. With James Herriot himself, he actually used a lot of his colleagues’ ideas as well for his stories.

One or two of those ideas are ones that I gave him, that happened to me.”

Mr Mitchell and Mr Wight are launching the book today in Thirsk at the James Herriot Centre, the museum devoted to the vet. Despite the continued success of the books and thousands of fans visiting the centre each year, its future is in doubt, with Government cutbacks looming.

“It has been losing money as a lot of museums have,” says Mr Wight.

“They are hoping to get somebody in to run the place with a more commercial bent. It’s losing the council money and I can understand in the current economic climate that something has to be done.

“It’s a lovely place and if you look at the comments in the visitors book, they are absolutely amazing.”

He and his sister, Rosie, who have no financial interest in the centre, are there to help.

“There aren’t too many museums that have the offspring of the subject still alive and so we can give first-hand information about James Herriot and show people around. which has been very successful in the past,” he says.

■ Herriot: A Vet’s Life by W R Mitchell is being launched at the centre between 11am and 1pm.

Mr Mitchell and Mr Wight will sign copies and talk about the real James Herriot, Alf Wight. The book is published by Great Northern Books in hardback, £15.99. To order a signed copy, call 01274-735056 or visit great northernbooks.co.uk