Like father, like son: 'The Real James Herriot'

Son of famous vet wants fans to get to know his father in biography

April 12, 2000
Web posted at: 12:40 p.m. EDT (1640 GMT)

(CNN) -- Jim Wight and his father, Alf, always shared a love for animals. The sentiment shaped their professional lives as the father-son team worked side-by-side at the same veterinary practice in Thirsk in northern England.

"I worked with him for 25 years," says Wight of his father. "He and I were always the best of mates."

Five years ago, Alf Wight died. Now, the son has written a book about his father. It's titled "The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father."

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An affectionate son remembers 'James Herriot'

James Herriot, as many know, was Alf Wight's pen name. He was the author of best-selling books like "All Creatures Great and Small," which went on to become a wildly successful TV series in the 1970s. By the 1990s, he had sold over 12 million books.

Wight says although his father was a private man when he was living, he deserves to have his story told.

"We've had literally millions of fans coming to our little town here and they want to know more about him," says Wight. "Throughout his career as a writer, he spoke very little about himself. He wrote about other people more than he did about himself. So I thought it was about time someone wrote about him, because he was an interesting man."

Born in 1916, James Alfred Wight spent his youth in Glasgow, Scotland, eventually attending Glasgow Veterinary College and settling in Thirsk.

Though he was often painted as an amiable Scot, Wight says his father endured hardships, including "rough times" battling illness while in the Royal Air Force. He also suffered a nervous breakdown in the early '60s, Wight says.

This information is included in the biography. Using his access to all of his father's papers, Wight says he aimed to be objective in his writing.

"If you're not careful you can paint a glowing picture of someone, with no faults, and the reader can think, 'Oh, this guy thinks his dad is the best thing since popcorn,' and they don't believe it," says Wight. "So the one thing I was determined to do was to paint a full picture. And for this I had to get permission of my mother and my sister. I just said, 'Look, if I'm doing this book, I've got to say everything. I've got to talk about his bad days as well as his good ones.' I think I've succeeded there and I do talk about his bad times."

"The Real James Herriot" also introduces readers to folks familiar from Herriot's books -- the real-life inspirations for now-famous characters like Siegfried and Tristan Farnon.

The book is the first one that Wight has even attempted to write. It wasn't his idea -- at first.

"It was my dad's agent who rang up one day and said, 'How about writing a book on your dad?'" Wight recalls. "To start with, I said, 'No, I can't do that.'

"The more I thought about it, the more the idea took hold. I said, 'Yeah, I'll have a go. You're only on this world once.'"

Now, Wight admits he has other ideas for books. In the same way his father took to writing, Wight, 57, might continue to follow in his father's footsteps.

"I'm a bit like my dad," says Wight. "His first book didn't come out until he was 50.

"But with this book, I want a lot of people to read about my father because he gave such a massive amount of pleasure to people with his books," Wight says. "I want to tell people what he was like."

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