James Herriot’s Yorkshire was published by St. Martin’s Press in 1979, with photographs by Derry Brabbs. The book is Herriot’s love letter to the landscape that forms the constant backdrop to his veterinary stories — the Yorkshire Dales, the North York Moors, the small market towns, and the farming country between them.
Herriot’s text is new (not excerpted from the earlier books) but covers familiar territory: the seasonal cycle of farming life, the character of different valleys and villages, the relationship between landscape and the people who work it. The writing is looser than in the narrative books — more discursive, more openly celebratory — because freed from plot, Herriot can simply describe what he sees and loves. Brabbs’s photographs complement the text: sweeping landscapes, stone barns, sheep on hillsides, the changing light on the Dales.
The book was enormously successful commercially — the combination of Herriot’s established readership with the coffee-table photography format produced a bestseller that introduced the Yorkshire Dales to readers (particularly American readers) who might never visit. It also fixed a particular image of Yorkshire in the popular imagination: green, timeless, beautiful, populated by eccentric but fundamentally decent people and their animals. This image, while partial, has proven remarkably durable.
Collecting James Herriot’s Yorkshire
First edition (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1979): Large format, cloth with dust jacket, illustrated.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $20–$50
- Signed: $75–$150
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Yorkshire in the books real? Yes. “Darrowby” is Thirsk, “Skeldale House” is 23 Kirkgate (now the World of James Herriot museum), and the surrounding Dales are the real Yorkshire Dales National Park. The landscape photography in James Herriot’s Yorkshire documents the same countryside described in the novels — stone walls, fell farms, market towns — and much of it is unchanged today.
Is this a coffee table book? Yes. James Herriot’s Yorkshire is a large-format illustrated book combining text by Herriot with landscape photography by Derry Brabbs. It was designed as a gift book and has remained in print as a companion to the novels.