All Things Bright and Beautiful continues the story of [James Herriot's] youthful practice in an earthy profession: with growing confidence and strong arms he learns to cope with calves that are strangling in birth and with complications like husk, grass staggers, calcium deficiency, or "wool ball on t'stomach." His courtship of Helen Alderson prevails despite her testy father and Herriot's undiplomatic judging of the Pet Show. The warmth which she brings into his life is as truly told as the admiration he feels for his gifted senior partner. His prose gives us the sound of sheep, the sight of lambs, the smell of spring in the Dales; perhaps the least successful chapters are those about the scamp Tristan, whose escapades border on the fictitious. But the laughter and fidelity in the writing arise from the fact that Dr. Herriot loves his work—and is still at it in Yorkshire. (pp. 114-15)
Edward Weeks, in The Atlantic Monthly (copyright © 1974 by The Atlantic Monthly Company, Boston, Mass.; reprinted with permission), October, 1974.
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