Although Wight claimed in the preface of James Herriot's Yorkshire that he had begun to write only after his wife encouraged him when he was 50, he in fact kept copious diaries as a child, as a teenager wrote for his school's magazine, and wrote at least one short story during his college years.[19]: 97, 163 In the early 1960s he began analysing the books of successful authors that he enjoyed reading, such as P. G. Wodehouse and Conan Doyle, to understand different writing styles.[19]: 244 During this time he also began writing more seriously, composing numerous short stories and, in his own words, 'bombarding' publishers with them.[19]: 233, 238
Based on the year when he started work in Thirsk, the stories in the first two books would have taken place early during the Second World War. Wight preferred to have them take place in a quieter era so he set them in pre-war years.[1]
The author required a pseudonym because the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons' regulations prevented vets from any type of advertising. A reliable source states that he "chose the name after attending a football match in which the Scotland internationalist Jim Herriot played in goal for Birmingham City."[20]
Wight's early efforts at having his writing published were unsuccessful, which he later explained by telling Paul Vallely in a 1981 interview for the Sunday Telegraph Magazine, "...my style was improving but [...] my subjects were wrong."[19]: 238–239 Choosing a subject where he was more experienced, in 1969 he wrote If Only They Could Talk, a collection of stories about his experiences as a young veterinary surgeon in the Yorkshire Dales. The book was published in the United Kingdom in 1970 by Michael Joseph Ltd. Wight followed it up with It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet in 1972. Sales were slow until Thomas McCormack of St. Martin's Press in New York City received a copy and arranged to have both books published as one volume in the United States that year. Wight named this volume All Creatures Great and Small from the second line of the hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful".[8]: 271 The book was a huge success.
Achieving success
Wight wrote seven more books in the series started by If Only They Could Talk. In the United States, the first six books of the original series were thought too short to publish independently. Most of the stories were collected into three omnibus volumes; the final two books were published separately. The last book of the series, Every Living Thing, sold 650,000 copies in six weeks in the United States and stayed on The New York Times Best Seller list for eight months.[19]: 433
Recent research indicates that the first two books sold only a few thousand copies in the UK at first. "It was a New York publisher [St. Martin's Press] who changed the childish-looking cover art[,] combined the works under the title All Creatures Great and Small," and reaped the benefits when the work achieved best-seller status in the US.[21] Its US editor, Tom McCormack, attributed the title to "a British guy in our marketing department, Michael Brooks"; in a 1976 BBC interview Wight said it was "my daughter's title" and "she thought that one out".[22][23][24]
Contrary to widespread belief, Wight's books are only partially autobiographical, with many of the stories only loosely based on real events or people. Where stories do have a basis in genuine veterinary cases, they are frequently ones that Wight attended in the 1960s and 70s. Most of the stories are set in the fictional town of Darrowby, which Wight described as a composite of Thirsk, its nearby market towns Richmond, Leyburn, and Middleham, and 'a fair chunk of my own imagination'.[25] Wight anonymised the majority of his characters by renaming them: Notably, he gave the pseudonyms Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, respectively, to Donald Sinclair and his brother Brian, and used the name Helen Alderson for his wife Joan.
When Wight's first book was published, Brian Sinclair "was delighted to be captured as Tristan and remained enthusiastic about all Wight's books."[21] Donald Sinclair was offended by his portrayal and said, "Alfred, this book is a real test of our friendship." (He never called Wight 'Alf', mirrored in the books by Siegfried's always referring to Herriot as 'James' rather than 'Jim'.) Things calmed down and the pair continued to work together until they retired.
Wight's son wrote in The Real James Herriot that Donald Sinclair's character in the novels was considerably toned down, and in an interview described him as 'hilarious', 'a genius', and 'chaotic'.[26] The New York Times also stated that Donald Sinclair had far more rough edges than the Siegfried character. "Sinclair’s real-life behaviour was much more eccentric. (He once discharged a shotgun during a dinner party to let his guests know it was time to leave.)"[1] When he asked a vet who knew Sinclair if he was eccentric, actor Samuel West (who researched the vet for his role in the Channel 5 TV series) was told, "Oh, no ... he was mad."[27] The books are novels and most sources agree that about 50 per cent of the content was fiction.[9]
In a BBC interview taped in 1976, Wight recalled his life in Yorkshire, his career, and the success of his books.[28][29]
