Herriot’s writing in the All Creatures Great and Small shows the hardship of life during the Great Depression in England, while at the same time documenting a period of change for the veterinary industry (Rossi, 33). This contrast is characteristic of the Depression in England, with intense poverty and unemployment lines juxtaposed against new electricity, prosperity, and movie theaters (“History: The Depression of the 1930s”). All of these elements make an appearance in the novel, helping Herriot to set the scene of the times. Herriot paints a picture of a quaint, but difficult, time in Yorkshire history, when critical advances in technology and medicine were just appearing.
In the beginning of the book, Herriot comments that his veterinary friends are unable to get work, setting the scene for the bleakness of the Depression, “being a newly qualified veterinary surgeon in this year of 1937 was like taking out a ticket for the dole queue” (8). The dole queue evokes the image of the iconic line, seen in many pictures of Britain’s Great Depression, where unemployed people had to go to get government support. Poverty on the farms and in the villages is also quite apparent in Herriot’s writing. Herriot describes the Rudds in detail, and notes the clever way that Mrs. Rudd is able to sustain her large family in Chapter 53: “It puzzled me, too, how Mrs. Rudd, armed only with the milk cheque from Dick’s few shaggy cows, had managed to feed them all, never mind bring them to this state of physical perfection.” (334). Using the setting of the Depression, Herriot is able to emphasize the resilience of the farmers of the Dales.
This poverty contrasts with the great wealth at the time, and with the technological advances of radio, telephone, and electricity. The Great Depression paradoxically fueled a period where British society was more well-to-do: many more people could afford to have luxurious houses and other goods, due to the lowered prices of the period. This increase in disposable income led to veterinarians shifting focus from working with beasts of burden to pets such as cats and dogs. In the novel, Herriot still often works on livestock, but, because the narrator comes from a present-day (the 1960s) perspective, he is very aware that livestock is disappearing: “Nowadays the sight of a cart mare and foal in a field would make me pull up my car to have another look” (148). Herriot’s work with livestock is juxtaposed against his more luxurious work with pampered dogs, such as Tricki Woo, thus emphasizing that the small animal work in Yorkshire is increasing with to people’s wealth.
Herriot benefits from the technological advances of the 1930s in a variety of ways. In one example, he marvels “there was electricity in place of the usual smoke-blackened oil lamp” (357) while he is helping a cow give birth. Herriot also enjoys the luxury of being able to take Helen to the movie theater on their second date. Movie theaters—or cinemas, as they are called in England—were a huge technological advance at the time (“History: The Depression of the 1930s”). Furthermore, Herriot mentions that Siegfried has bedside telephones installed, remarking that “These bedside phones were undoubtedly an improvement” (184); despite the fact that they scare Herriot when they ring in the middle of the night, they offer a new level of comfort by allowing him to answer the phone from his bed.
The advances in technology were not the only advances of this period: the farming industry changed a great deal in the 1930s as well. With many ancient treatments being obliterated and new drugs being discovered and put into use, All Creatures Great and Small takes place during a changing period of veterinary medicine. One marked change, driven by the government health standards, was the increase in attention to eradicating tuberculosis in cows. The British government paid special attention to this in the 1930s: the agricultural decline after World War I, followed by the depression, had an effect on the health of cows, leading to milk contamination (Woods). This increased attention to tuberculosis is notable in Herriot’s work as an inspector, which involves testing cows for this disease.
Throughout the novel, Herriot contrasts the medicines of the 1930s with those he now uses in the 1960s (Rossi, 38). The medicines of Herriot’s present day were not yet known in the 1930s, as Herriot notes in his observation about the soon-to-be-obsolete Universal Cattle Medicine, described in Chapter 62: “The bottles were tall and shapely and they came in elegant white cartons, so much more impressive than the unobtrusive containers of the antibiotics and steroids which we use today” (400). Herriot’s narration allows the author to accurately illustrate the historical context of the book, while also painting a quaint picture the past in the imagery of the "...tall... shapely...elegant white cartons." This helps to emphasize the changing landscape of veterinary medicine at the time, and keeps the reader engaged in a narrative that has a reminiscent tone of the old times.
