Opening with his award of Membership of the Royal College of Veterinary
Surgeons, the book relates John's personal and family history from his
English and Belgian parents and grandparents and their roles in two
World Wars. His Belgian grandparents were evacuated to England in the
first war: his father was shot at by the Germans during the liberation
of Antwerp and his mother bombed in a pub in South London while serving
in the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service in the second.
Managing to get into veterinary college from a large comprehensive
school in South London, John recounts tales from his studies and goes on
to discuss various major debates which occurred during his career,
including vaccinations and the anti-vaccine lobby. The role of badgers
and TB is also discussed. The tale of his experience of meeting children
with the drug-induced injury of thalidomide is both life-affirming and
tear-jerking.
His time in East Africa, including his experiences in Uganda under Idi
Amin's dictatorship, is chilling but still funny and up-lifting. The
tales of his experiences in general and specialist veterinary practice,
with memorable farm, horse, dog and cat cases are enlightening,
educational and sometimes sad but often very hilarious. The horrific
experiences with foot-and-mouth disease will get any animal lover in
tears and questioning what happened and why? But the option of a Vegan
Utopia in a world without farm animals is dismissed as a sad alternative
as demonstrated when large swathes of the United Kingdom were left
without stock after the outbreak.
