Her pride in the achievements of her son had led to many embarrassing moments. ‘Now, you know who I am?’ she would say to total strangers. ‘I am James Herriot’s mother! Let me introduce you to him. Alf … Alf …?’ Like his father before him, Alf would have quietly disappeared from the scene.

It is beyond the scope of this book to describe the many hilarious episodes concerning my grandmother, but the old lady who looked after me so well during my university years is remembered by the whole family with great affection.

Alf Wight may have been at the very height of his success in the early 1980s, but the loss of those close to him at that time, together with his own bout of ill-health and Brian’s serious illness, were a constant reminder that time was passing by. As he looked back over the previous ten years of achievement, he had reason to feel proud of what he had done; and as such a careful and compassionate man, he had – apart from the brief upset with Donald over the characterisation of Siegfried – managed to achieve his success without hurting the feelings of others in any way.

From his very beginnings as a writer, Alf’s primary concern was that he should not upset his friends but, in 1981, he was reminded again that the trappings of fame can take on an unpleasant guise when he fell out with his old friend, Eddie Straiton.

In the summer of 1981, Eddie was summoned to appear in front of the Disciplinary Committee of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons on a charge of bringing discredit on the profession. He had stated on BBC Radio’s ‘Jimmy Young Show’ that he had ‘raced’ his young assistants to see who could neuter a cat the fastest and that, during one race, he had inadvertently opened up one supposedly female cat only to discover that it was a tom.

With Eddie having always been an extrovert character, this story was meant as a humorous aside but there were those who did not see the funny side of it. On 29 September 1981, he found himself, not for the first time, standing before the Disciplinary Committee. Some character witnesses would clearly have helped Eddie’s case and an obvious one was Alf Wight – one of Eddie’s oldest and most respected friends – but Alf had declined to appear on his behalf.

In Graham Lord’s biography of James Herriot, it says that Eddie claims that the reason Alf did not support him was because he was due to be made a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons – an extremely high honour in the British veterinary profession – and that he did not want to jeopardise this in any way.

I am greatly saddened that Eddie could think so poorly of one of his most loyal friends; one who had stood by him steadfastly through an eventful and sometimes controversial career. Not only was Alf not informed of his impending honour until two months afterEddie’s disciplinary hearing, but he would never have sacrificed the interests of one of his friends for the purpose of adding yet another honour to his already impressive list.

Alf, in fact, disapproved of Eddie’s remarks about the ‘spay race’. He considered that his friend – by asserting that he could neuter a cat with lightning speed – had demeaned the skills of his profession. Knowing well that spaying a cat is not always the simple and straightforward operation that many believe it to be, he felt that Eddie’s remarks had been in poor taste. However, Eddie Straiton had been a staunch supporter of the profession in the past, and Alf would have appeared on his behalf to stress his many admirable qualities had he not been, at that time, tormented with the pain of renal colic.

Eddie, deeply upset over Alf’s hesitation in offering him his support, and under immense pressure not only from the impending disciplinary hearing but also from the imminent death of his wife from terminal cancer, allowed his feelings to spill over with the use of some very strong words. His impulsive and misguided accusations very sadly inflicted irreparable damage on a friendship that stretched back to their days together in Glasgow.

I well remember the effect of Eddie’s words on my father. Through no fault of his own, Alf Wight was being accused of insensitivity and selfishness by one of his oldest friends. Feelings of intense hurt and disbelief were followed by anger and a determination that he would never have anything to do with Eddie again.

Eddie quickly realised his mistake. More than one letter of apology arrived on Alf’s doorstep but my father was unrepentant. I remember arguing with him at the time, reminding him that they had been friends for so long, but I was unable to influence him. Once something was fixed in his mind, he could be a very difficult man to reason with.

As the years rolled by, I am happy to say that his attitude softened towards Eddie and they resumed correspondence. Eddie’s hurtful accusations, however, were the ultimate reason for Alf Wight’s refusal to appear at the disciplinary hearing in 1981.

The years from 1981 to 1985 were a non-productive time for James Herriot the author – during which he savoured the rest from the pressures of writing – but the size of the ‘James Herriot Industry’ decreed that he could never completely return to the relative obscurity of veterinary surgeon and family man. His name was now too big. Fan mail continued to pour into his house and, with the name of James Herriot producing visions of pound and dollar notes for many, he was under gentle but constant pressure from his main publishers in England and America to produce another book.

Alf had little interest in how much money he, or other people, would make out of his return to the typewriter, but writing by now was in his blood. He was all too aware of the massive changes he had observed within his profession and the heartfelt desire to preserve that old way of life in print was beginning to assert itself again.

‘I consider that I am a very fortunate man,’ he said. ‘I have lived through the golden years of veterinary practice – without doubt, the best years.’ The new age of rules, regulations and paperwork did not appeal to him, and a deepening nostalgia for his rapidly disappearing world was to result in his sitting, once again, in his study, tapping out more stories.

I remember this as a time of concern for my mother. Realising that her husband was not getting any younger, but also aware that she could not stop him pursuing the interest that had now become ingrained in his soul, she urged him to refrain from the deadlines of delivery dates and to take things a little more slowly.

During the glitzy years of the 1970s, at which time she often accompanied him on his public engagements, many people believed that she was the dominant force of the pair – displaying an apparently unenthusiastic attitude to his success. Knowing him better than anyone, and fully acquainted with his sensitive nature, Joan was simply trying to protect him from the avalanche of publicity that she feared would have a detrimental effect on him. In doing so, she conveyed a false impression of the relationship between her and her husband. Throughout their long marriage, it was he who made all the major decisions in the family.

Realising that Alf could never fully turn his back on writing, she was not really surprised when, in 1986, he allowed himself to be persuaded to write some material for a new television series of ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ He had, in fact, written a few stories already – the list of ‘headings’ for ever at his side – and this latest approach was enough to rekindle his eagerness to begin writing again in earnest. The result of this was, eventually, the publication in 1992 of his final book, Every Living Thing. James Herriot was, once again, standing by the side of Alfred Wight.