The American faces a job to win over the locals after succeeding the beloved Marcelo Bielsa but can succeed like the Scottish vet
In the first of his many bestselling novels, If Only They Could Talk, the newly qualified veterinary surgeon James Herriot arrives in Yorkshire fresh out of Glasgow University. There, the whey-faced and extremely wet‑behind‑the‑ears rookie begins his new life as an assistant in the practice owned by his new boss, Siegfried Farnon.
After a couple of weeks going about his business under the hawk-eyed supervision of his extremely eccentric but avuncular employer, Herriot is finally handed the responsibility of working in and around the village of Darrowby on his own. The locals – many of them harbouring deeply entrenched views of how their pets and livestock should be treated – greet his methods and very presence with deep suspicion and mistrust.
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