After the war, as James Herriot continued his veterinary practice in the Yorkshire dales, a lot of things had changed. New drugs and operations made magical improvements in his work, artificial insemination became commonplace and suddenly everyone wanted their cows dehorned.  Herriot himself now had two small children whose differeing personalities competed with the growing practice for his attention.

But Yorkshire never really changes and James Herriot's memories of his triumphs and disasters, the daily dramas involving man and beast, are as heartwarming and deliciously funny as his millions of readers can wish.  Interwoven with his life in the Dales are the accounts of two extraordinary journeys which he made in the early sixties: to Russia, in charge of a valuable cargo of pedigree shieep, and, near disastrously, to Istanbul in an aeroplane loaded with Jersey cattle. 

James and Helen, Siegfried and Tristan, and many old friends from the Herriot true-life saga, are here again to share the peculiar magic of an enchanting way of life.

From the dust jacket