12 Replies to “All Creatures Great And Small Documentary”

  1. What ever happened to Brian Nettleton, who the Calum Buchanon character was based on?

  2. I’m pretty sure he and his family moved to Nova Scotia, Canada and then later to Papua New Guinea.

  3. Dr. Nettleton ran a successful practice in Truro, Nova Scotia until the 1970’s or early ’80s. He and his wife moved to New Guinea. Unfortunately, he was killed during a snow storm during a visit to Nova Scotia. The date of his death escapes me. His widow now resides in Cape Breton Island that is part of the province of Nova Scotia.

  4. According to the prologue in Anne Barclay Priest’s memoir, Mr. Nettleton died just before Christmas 1988, in what she termed a “stupid automobile accident.” She dedicates her book to him, as a friend and as the mentor who turned her caprice to raise sheep on Blue Island, Nova Scotia, into a true shepherd’s life. Ms. Priest is recognized by the Blue Faced Leicester Union of North America as an early adopter of the breed, which was introduced to Canada and the U.S. largely through Mr. Nettleton’s efforts.

  5. I am the Neice of Brian Nettleton and he died over 20 years ago. My aunt now lives in Nova Scotia with her family and my uncle Brian is remembered fondly throughout the family xx

  6. Brian lived in Mendi, Papua New Guinea in the 1980’s when my parents worked there. I can remember Brian playing the spoons with my mothers solid silver desert spoons at dinner once, we still have them and they are still slightly dented!

    I don’t know the exact details of the work Brian was doing but have vivid memories of visiting their place and sitting on the veranda while Brian worked sheep and ducks on the far side of the small valley with a dog.

    Not someone you could meet and ever forget, a true character.

  7. I was fascinated with this character & his adventurous spirit from James Herriot books. I hope all his family are well & remember him fondly

  8. Dr. Brian Nettleton owned and operated a vet clinic in Salmon River outside of Truro in central Nova Scotia where he settled with his wife Martha and their six children. The family then moved to beautiful Isle Madame, a small island off the coast of Cape Breton where they ran a sheep farm. As the kids got older, Martha and Brian left to work in Papua, New Guinea for a few years. It was on a trip home to Nova Scotia to reunite with his family on Christmas Eve that Brian was killed in a car accident, a terrible tragedy for the family and a great loss for Nova Scotia. Today, Martha and his daughter Sarah continue to run the family’s sheep farm in Arichat on Isle Madame.

  9. My condolences to the family for their sad loss. However, I am so happy to hear that Martha and Sarah continue to run the family’s farm. I also wonder if anyone from (or associated with) the family can answer I burning question I’ve long had: Where were Brian and Martha married? The church is named in “Every Living Thing” as “Keeler” but I don’t believe that is its real name as (a) I’ve never found a church under that name and (b) almost every location in the books was given a pseudonym. The church is described as “an ancient church of great beauty, built by the Normans around 1100, standing quite along among surrounding fields” (though who knows if that’s still the case after all these years). I’ve always wondered where it was, and it remains one of my favourite places to picture/read about in the James Herriot books. Best wishes and God bless from Ontario. -Cat

  10. Brian Nettleton and Martha were well known in Mendi and Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea in the early and mideighties. He was a great entertainer, besides being the best (probably only) veterinarian of PNG. But he also was ahell of a driver with his Tenseater Toyota Station Wagon. I remember a trip from Oiyarip (close to Mendi), where he ran a very nice farm of stock animals, to Erave. He must have thought his car was an airplane, the way he sailed along the dirt road. And yes: he played the spoons like an artist, singing along with us the “Rose vom Wörthersee”, which he had learned to sing when he was a UK-soldier in Austria after WW2.

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