James Alfred "Alf" Wight, better known by his pen name James Herriot, was a British veterinary surgeon and author. Born in Sunderland, he graduated from Glasgow Veterinary College in 1939 and then returned to England to become a veterinary surgeon in Yorkshire, where he practiced for almost 50 years.

He is best known for writing a series of eight books set in the 1930s–1950s Yorkshire Dales about veterinary practice, animals, and their owners. The series began with If Only They Could Talk, first published in 1970. Over the decades, these books have sold some 60 million copies.

The franchise based on his writings was very successful, including several television and film adaptations, such as the 1975 film All Creatures Great and Small, a BBC television series of the same name which ran 90 episodes, and a 2020 UK Channel 5 series, also of the same name.