3rd October: James Herriot

James Herriot, vet and novelist, was born on this date in 1916. He would have been 98 today. 10 things you might not know about him:

1. His real name was James Alfred Wight. He wrote using a pen name, because his books might have been construed as an advertisement for his services and therefore a breach of professional etiquette. The name James Herriot was inspired by a football match between Birmingham City and Manchester United: Birmingham's goalie in that match was Jim Herriot.
2. James Herriot was a lifelong supporter of Sunderland Football Club his father had been before him. In 1992 he was named a Life President of the club.
3. Wight served in the Royal Air Force in World War II as a Leading Aircraftman.
4. Although he'd always wanted to write a book, he didn't start writing until he was 50 years old, after a challenge from his wife. He started writing stories about football and other topics which only met with rejection. When he started writing about his veterinary practice, ie. what he knew best, he became an instant hit.
5. The books aren't entirely autobiographical, as many people believe. Many of the stories in the books are only loosely based on real events, and while all the cases are set in the 1930s, some of them are based on cases he attended as late as the 1970s. Nor are the books really about animals, but about Yorkshire country life and the relationships between animals and their owners.
6. In 2009, Grand Central Railway, which operates train services from Sunderland to London King's Cross (calling at Thirsk), named a train after him.
7. When he died in 1995, the Reader's Digest Condensed Book volume containing All Creatures Great And Small was the most popular book in that series' history.
8. In his home town of Thirsk. there is a "World of James Herriot" museum, at 23 Kirkgate, where his practice was. Parts of the BBC TV series set are on display there. The town also boasts a a pub called the "Darrowby Inn". Many of the original contents of his surgery can be found at the Yorkshire Museum of Farming in Murton, York.
9. In 2011 the BBC broadcast a three-part drama called Young James Herriot, based on his life and training in Scotland. The producers had exclusive access to the diaries and case notes he kept during his student days in Glasgow.
10. James Herriot also wrote several books for children including Blossom Comes Home, Only One Woof, The Christmas Day Kitten and Smudge, the Little Lost Lamb.