A dissection of the five memoirs of James Herriot, beginning with ""All Creatures Great and Small"". It provides a comprehensive catalogue of the plots and themes, along with observations. It examines why Herriot was so successful and seeks to be enlightening and encouraging for budding writers struggling to get published. Sternlicht is not writing from across the water with no knowledge of Yorkshire or its people: he was appointed Leverhulme Visiting Fellow at the University of York in 1965.