The Diary of a Yorkshire Vet

by Julian Norton

The Diary of a Yorkshire Vet By Julian Norton Taken from his popular column in The Yorkshire Post, Julian Norton’s The Diary of a Yorkshire Vet features anecdotes from his veterinary work in North Yorkshire. From hairy pigs near Helmsley to a bullock with an enormous eye at Old Byland, these true stories bring to life the drama and humour in the daily routine of a rural vet. Along the way, Julian deals with llamas near Brimham Rocks, greedy sheep in Cold Kirby, eagles, seals, alpacas and Geoffrey Boycott. About the Author Julian has been working in mixed practice in rural North Yorkshire for the majority of his twenty-one years as a vet, much of this in the market town of Thirsk, made famous by James Herriot and his books. During this time, he has seen many varied cases, unusual animals great and small and has met and become friends with a huge mixture of fascinating farmers and pet owners. In 2015, Julian became involved with the hit TV series The Yorkshire Vet, which continues to be a popular Channel 5 programme. He contributes a weekly column to The Country Week section of The Yorkshire Post, documenting his weekly veterinary anecdotes. Julian currently works in the market town of Boroughbridge, continuing his passion for independent mixed practice, where he works with his wife, Anne who is also a vet.

Genres: Animals

186 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 20, 2018

About the author

Julian Norton is a British veterinary surgeon, author and TV personality, best known for his appearances on the Channel 5 TV series The Yorkshire Vet

Norton was born and brought up in the mining town of Castleford and went to school in Wakefield at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, before gaining a place to study veterinary medicine at Cambridge University

Since 2015, Norton has been involved, taking the titular role in Channel 5 docuseries The Yorkshire Vet, produced by Daisybeck Studios in Leeds. The programme has been popular, achieving viewing figures of over 2 million, making it one of the channel's most successful.Julian has also featured as a regular guest on The Wright Stuff as well as Springtime on the Farm and Big Week at the Zoo.

He contributes a weekly column in The Country Week of The Yorkshire Post.

He performs regular "in conversation" events with comedian and stand up poet, Kate Fox.

Julian's website is www.thenakedvet.co.uk which offers links to the podcasts of the same name, which he performs with Kate Fox.

Norton attained a certificate in Small Animal Practice in 2007 and has been awarded the Dalesman "Yorkshireman of the Year 2017".

Reviews

[David Lowther · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Diary of a Yorkshire Vet is an extremely entertaining book. Julian Norton writes a weekly column in The Yorkshire Post and this book pulls together twelve months of those articles.

What the diary confirms is the incredible versatility that the vet needs to have whether dealing with animals, birds or even reptiles. There's also the contrast between the needs of pets and farm animals on whom the livelihood of so many of Julian's clients depend. Broken bones, cancers,problems with delivering the young, dogs and cats swallowing the wrong thing and so one, all part and parcel of the daily routine of the vet. Daily includes nightly as Julian frequently has to leave home in the middle of the night to deal with a farm emergency.

The Diary of a Yorkshire Vet is exceptionally well-written with Julian's trade mark humour shining through as he recounts the trials and tribulations, as well as the rewards, of the life of a vet in a busy mixed practice.

David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil, Liberating Belsen, Two Families at War and The Summer of '39, all published by Sacristy Press.

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to dip in and out of full of interesting, funny and informative tales from Julian's experiences as a mixed practice vet as seen in his weekly Yorkshire Post column.

This was just as enjoyable as sitting down to watch an episode of 'The Yorkshire Vet'. It has given me (a soon to be small animal vet nurse) an insight into what working in a mixed practice is like and how the variability can be just as rewarding as it is challenging.

[Glenn Short · Rating 5 out of 5]

The life of a country vet

A small peek into the fascinating life of a country vet. It is heartwarming to vicariously experience the interaction between vet and animal

[Caroline Houston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved how you could come back to the book as and when and enjoy it

[Louise Emma Finch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy and fun read

Light, easy read. Lovely animal stories written with great wit and humanity. I couldn’t put it down. Looking forward to next book in series!

[Carin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel kind of bad not giving it a better rating as I enjoy watching Julian on The Yorkshire Vet, but the editing could have been better (too many randomly blank pages for example).

[Kimberley Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it like Julians other books

[Dorothea Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are unfinished. In the epilogue he wraps up all the stories. You’re left hanging during the book when you think you’ll never find out what happened to the animals.

[LeeAnn · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you’re looking for something like the James Herriot books, you’ll be disappointed. Suddenly I started appreciating how extremely well James Herriot wrote. His style far exceeds this author’s. And sad to say, I couldn’t bear reading very much of this.

[Dronerg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable but I already knew a lot of the stories from watching the TV series. I also wanted to know the outcomes of some of the cases, but because it was in the form of a diary, it was a case of "Watch this space". Not as good as the last one of his I read.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was OK. Not on a par with James Herriot stories but then again these are excerpts from a newspaper column by the author.
However, the stories are short and not always resolved which was a bit annoying.