These are the early married days of young James Herriot, united at last with Helen after the trouble-strewn courtship he described in It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet and Let Sleeping Vets Lie. And it further enriches a life already warmly coloured by his daily contacts as a veterinary surgeon with all kinds and sizes of animals and their infinitely varied owners.

The book tells how the young couple set up their first home in the lofty upper rooms of Skeldale House while around them at all times flows the bright, exhilarating stream of veterinary practice. We accompany James Herriot as he ministers to a variety of patients from bulls to budgies and we meet many fascinating new characters. Mr. Partridge the unlikely country artist whose beloved dog has an embarrassing ailment, Moses the kitten whose battle for survival is aided by a benevolent pig, Sister Rose the gallant nurse who threw her precious time and energy into the foundation of an animal shelter and showed how many helpless strays could be succoured, and there is Gyp the sheepdog who barked only once in his entire life.

He introduces us to another of his colourful colleagues in Granville Bennett, brilliant and urbane small animal surgeon who helps him with his cases but leads him astray in the process. And we find out the things that can happen when an uninitiated Glaswegian is inveigled into playing in a village cricket match. 

Vets all over the world have recognised in the exploits of James Herriot the same predicaments, the same triumphs and disasters which they themselves have experienced; because these accounts, mostly funny but sometimes touching, are a true cross-section of the life of a country animal doctor. Similarly, lovers of the natural world find their feelings faithfully mirrored in Herriot's deep involvement with his patients, and respond to his constant awareness of the beauty around him, the exciting unspoiled Yorkshire Dales.

From the dust jacket