"I was 10 when I first read "All Creatures Great and Small," devouring each subsequent book that Alf Wight, under the pen name James Herriot, wrote about life as a veterinarian in his beloved Yorkshire Dales. I was a bit older when I encountered Bram Stoker's "Dracula," which opens in the seaside town of Whitby, where cliffs overlook the sea in which the ill-fated ship Demeter meets its end. In my teens, I discovered the wild moors and ancient halls of "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights." More recently, I have been entranced by the work of Sally Wainwright, whose string of critically acclaimed series - "Last Tango in Halifax," "Happy Valley," "Gentleman Jack" and "Riot Women" - have made her the modern bard of Yorkshire, England."
"In mid-April, I joined my friend Nancy in York, a city often mentioned in Yorkshire-based literature. On a sunny Saturday, we took a train to Thirsk, where Herriot, alongside Donald and Brian Sinclair (known in the books as Siegfried and Tristan Farnon) lived and worked in "Skeldale House," now the World of James Herriot museum. The city sprawl quickly gave way to stone-walled fields full of dazzling yellow rape and spring-green grass dotted with sheep and frolicking lambs. April is lambing season, the perfect time to visit Herriot Country."
"Situated between the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales national parks, Thirsk (known as Darrowby in the Herriot books) is a market town, organized around a great open plaza in which stands a clock tower that on this day was deco"
A visit to Yorkshire is planned around places made familiar through classic novels and modern television. Early reading of veterinary stories set in the Yorkshire Dales leads to a trip to Thirsk, where Skeldale House now functions as the World of James Herriot museum. The journey moves from York’s city sprawl into stone-walled fields with spring colors and sheep during lambing season. Thirsk, known as Darrowby in the books, is described as a market town organized around a central open plaza and clock tower. The landscape and seasonal timing are presented as especially fitting for experiencing Herriot Country.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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