‘Vets in the Belfry is like its predecessors … very funny indeed.’ The Catholic Herald
Vets in the Belfry is the third in this entertaining series of books based on the hilarious exploits of a vet who was practising in London and the Home Counties in the 1950s and ’60s.
At last, Michael Morton means to settle down as a partner in his uncle’s Knightsbridge veterinary practice and marry his snake-charming fiancée, Julia. But his plans are suddenly disrupted – Julia goes down with appendicitis a day before the wedding, and when Michael is summoned urgently to New York by the Duke of Alanspring, whose horses and greyhound Grey Rainbow are among his clients, Julia insists that Michael’s professional interests must come first.
This is America, 1959, the most advanced country in the world and the world’s leading economy, but Michael is shocked to find that it is also a largely insular, even puritanical nation, a society of conservative moralists ‘stranger, more outlandish than the remotest parts of Europe… I did feel an alien. It was a new sensation, puzzling, disturbing yet always intriguing.’
No more so than among the rich American pet owners who offer nuptial rites as part of a breeding programme and dream up the Decent Animals Federation, a society dedicated to clothing millions of naked animals throughout the world. The real-life Society for Indecency to Naked Animals was launched on NBC's ‘Today Show’ by Clifford Prout on May 27, 1959, and tens of thousands of pet owners signed up, one contributing $40,000 to the venture.
When Michael is commissioned by the Duke to set up his new American wife’s dog-training school in opposition to the Federation, he soon realises he’ll not be taking the plane back to Julia and his London practice any time soon, particularly after the Duchess’s elegant daughter Vera enters upon the scene.
‘Highly intelligent animal lore and canny moralising.’ The Countryman
Vets in the Belfry is the third in this entertaining series of books based on the hilarious exploits of a vet who was practising in London and the Home Counties in the 1950s and ’60s.
At last, Michael Morton means to settle down as a partner in his uncle’s Knightsbridge veterinary practice and marry his snake-charming fiancée, Julia. But his plans are suddenly disrupted – Julia goes down with appendicitis a day before the wedding, and when Michael is summoned urgently to New York by the Duke of Alanspring, whose horses and greyhound Grey Rainbow are among his clients, Julia insists that Michael’s professional interests must come first.
This is America, 1959, the most advanced country in the world and the world’s leading economy, but Michael is shocked to find that it is also a largely insular, even puritanical nation, a society of conservative moralists ‘stranger, more outlandish than the remotest parts of Europe… I did feel an alien. It was a new sensation, puzzling, disturbing yet always intriguing.’
No more so than among the rich American pet owners who offer nuptial rites as part of a breeding programme and dream up the Decent Animals Federation, a society dedicated to clothing millions of naked animals throughout the world. The real-life Society for Indecency to Naked Animals was launched on NBC's ‘Today Show’ by Clifford Prout on May 27, 1959, and tens of thousands of pet owners signed up, one contributing $40,000 to the venture.
When Michael is commissioned by the Duke to set up his new American wife’s dog-training school in opposition to the Federation, he soon realises he’ll not be taking the plane back to Julia and his London practice any time soon, particularly after the Duchess’s elegant daughter Vera enters upon the scene.
‘Highly intelligent animal lore and canny moralising.’ The Countryman
