First of the memoir/novels by James Herriot about life in a rural veterinary practice, abridged to 3 CD length. It's read by Christopher Timothy, who played Herriot in the 1970s/80s tv adaptation All Creatures Great and Small, and it's read very well.

This book covers the period from Herriot's arrival at the practice for a job interview to the end of his first year there. It was a time when modern drugs were just starting to come into use -- before antibiotics, but with some other new treatments providing results that seemed little short of a miracle. Herriot brings the past to life with his gentle, compassionate stories about his patients and their owners in the Yorkshire Dales. It's some years since I read the book, but it appears to have been abridged by selecting some stories and omitting others. Tricky Woo fans will be pleased to hear that the little peke has not been left out. ( )