Chapter 11 Summary and Analysis

Siegfried persuades James Herriot to take one of his tickets to the annual Darrowby Show, a rural festival where each year a veterinarian is on hand if needed for sick animals and to judge the Family Pet contest. Siegfried describes it as a day of fun and frivolity in seducing Herriot to take his place. So he goes to the fair with Tristan..

Little does Herriot realize he is being drawn into a web of petty rivalries, old resentments and social ostracism. The Saturday of the show begins with excellent, sunny weather. The setting for the show is a spot of classic rural England:

Herriot spies Helen, the object of his affections, with another young man named Richard Edmundson, walking very close to her. Irritated, he turns to look for Tristan, whom he discovers in the refreshment area, a glass of...