I received a free copy of this book thanks to Readers First in exchange for an honest review.
I used to enjoy reading James Herriot’s memoirs of his life as a vet in Yorkshire when I was younger so I was quite looking forward to this book. This isn’t quite the same as those because it is much more autobiographical and Bruce Fogle (TV presenter Ben Fogle’s Dad) is working in an up-market practice in a posh area of London in the 1970s. This being said, I enjoyed reading about how different things were back then – treating not just influential celebrities’ animals but the pet department of Harrods which at the time were able to sell exotic animals such as pumas.
Although I enjoyed the book it did take a while to get into it and it did take me quite a long time to read through. He goes into quite a lot of depth about various procedures he performed and explains about various veterinary drugs which some readers may find a bit long-winded/boring. It also switches between past and present tense which can be a bit confusing in places and seemed to halt the flow of the book, in my opinion. I appreciated the honesty that runs throughout the book – Fogle freely admits that some of the practices they performed would now be considered largely unethical and I thought it was quite interesting to read up on all this.
Overall, it was an interesting snippet of detail about veterinary practice in the 1970s but didn’t grab my imagination as much as I was hoping.
I used to enjoy reading James Herriot’s memoirs of his life as a vet in Yorkshire when I was younger so I was quite looking forward to this book. This isn’t quite the same as those because it is much more autobiographical and Bruce Fogle (TV presenter Ben Fogle’s Dad) is working in an up-market practice in a posh area of London in the 1970s. This being said, I enjoyed reading about how different things were back then – treating not just influential celebrities’ animals but the pet department of Harrods which at the time were able to sell exotic animals such as pumas.
Although I enjoyed the book it did take a while to get into it and it did take me quite a long time to read through. He goes into quite a lot of depth about various procedures he performed and explains about various veterinary drugs which some readers may find a bit long-winded/boring. It also switches between past and present tense which can be a bit confusing in places and seemed to halt the flow of the book, in my opinion. I appreciated the honesty that runs throughout the book – Fogle freely admits that some of the practices they performed would now be considered largely unethical and I thought it was quite interesting to read up on all this.
Overall, it was an interesting snippet of detail about veterinary practice in the 1970s but didn’t grab my imagination as much as I was hoping.