All Things Wise and Wonderful continues the story of life in the Yorkshire Dales started by Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small and All Things Bright and Beautiful. This volume is set during WWII, with Herriot doing a stint in the RAF, training to be a pilot, while his wife Helen weans their first child back in Darrowby.
Like the first two, All Things Wise and Wonderful is a delightful recollection of the good, the bad, and the amusing situations and people that Herriot encountered- as a vet and, in this case, in the RAF as well. I was a bit surprised to see 90% of the book be focused on vet stories- I had expected this work to focus more on RAF experiences- but it's great nonetheless. Most chapters start out with Herriot beginning to speak about some aspect of military life, but mostly in the sense that a given RAF incident reminded him of a past situation treating an animal, on which he focuses for the remainder of the chapter. You can tell that, though he enjoyed his RAF experience, his heart never left the Dales. His enjoyment of his life's work in contagious, as he embraces both its hardships and joys with an air of contentment and thankfulness. Another winner.
Rating: A
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