The book shines with humor, pathos, superb tale-telling and, a rarity above all these, what seems a richly justified love of life. Whether on his back in a muck-filled stable with his arm inside a cow, trying to turn a calf into the proper position to be born, or calming a wealthy dowager with an overfed Pekinese, or comforting a lonely old man whose only companion - a dog - has died, James Herriot needed all the bedside manner, stamina, skill, and gift of humanity of the best of family doctors.