Author. Veterinarian. Born James Alfred Wight the son of Hannah and James Wight in Sunderland, England. He was raised in the Glasgow suburb of Yoker, Scotland, where he attended Yoker Primary School and Hillhead High School. In 1939 he was graduated from Glasgow Veterinary College and within a year found employment in the town of Thirsk, Yorkshire where he met and married Joan Catherine Anderson Danbury in 1941. During the Second World War, he served in the RAF, and after demobilization returned to his practice in Yorkshire.

He had long wished to write, but the pressures of his practice postponed his attempts until the 1960s. After several stories focusing on football (soccer) were rejected, Wight wrote of what he knew. 'If Only They Could Talk,' based upon his life as a working rural vet, was published in the UK in 1969 under the pen name James Herriot followed by 'It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet.' The two volumes were combined for their American debut and entitled 'All Creatures Great and Small,' which quickly rose to bestseller. Several popular sequels followed including 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' in 1974, 'All Things Wise and Wonderful' in 1977, and 'The Lord God Made Them All' in 1981. The books were adapted into two feature films and a long-running BBC television series, all of which were called 'All Creatures Great and Small.'

In 1979 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire and he received an honorary Litt.D. (Doctorate of Letters) from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. In 1982 was awarded a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the senior category of membership of the RCVS for members who have demonstrated significant original contribution to their profession. In February 1995, the new library at Glasgow Veterinary School was named the James Herriot Library in recognition of his services to the profession. Wight, however, succumbed to prostate cancer the day before he was due to attend the official opening.