The Yorkshire Vet, Julian Norton gets some heartwarming news on his book signing tour

She’d enlisted the help of various famous people to help her save the gardens, including the botanist David Bellamy and Alf Wight (which is why she thought I’d be interested). I confessed that I had never actually been to the Valley Gardens but promised I would make a visit a matter of priority.

I left Harrogate on time, which was important as I was heading all the way to Guisborough, which wasn’t as nearby as I thought. Guisborough has a brilliant bookshop that always makes a huge effort and draws a crowd.

I didn’t expect people from Lancashire but I did expect lots of people. On my journey, I mulled over the question of the stolen book.

It was hardly the most egregious of crimes, but it didn’t seem right. Anne, my wife, is an avid book reader and thinks it is a crime to fold down corners of pages or bend the spine in the wrong manner, but those things don’t bother me. Books are for reading and it doesn’t matter if the pages are scuffed.

It does matter though, if the thing’s been stolen, because stealing it from a library prevents somebody else from reading it. It was like having your cake, eating most of it and then throwing the rest in the bin to stop others from enjoying the taste. I was not amused by someone’s behaviour with my book.

Luckily, Guisborough Book Shop did not disappoint and there were plenty of people to cheer me up. The first time I visited was to deliver a talk in the town community building, which was called “Sunnyside”. The name conjured up images of a retirement home, but it wasn’t. It was a large, imposing stone building sitting, incongruously, in amongst the shops in the high street.

It was a winter’s evening and dark and there was a long queue extending out of the front doors. The preceding Zumba class had to clear up before we were allowed to enter. I remember being amazed that so many people had turned up because I was expecting an audience of about ten.

I can’t remember much about my talk that evening five and a half years ago, other than the fact that the projector wouldn’t work, so I had to make it all up on the spot. It was chaos, but I think I got away with it.

Today, the queue was much shorter. Maybe the locals had grown fed up with books by local vets? Maybe visitors were outside enjoying the summer weather? But everyone was pleasant and the lady second or third in the queue, held out her book.

“It’s nice to see you again, Julian,” she smiled.

“Please can you write: ‘To Jarred, enjoy your studies at vet school’, or something like that?”

Then she added: “It’s for my grandson. He came to see you at Sunnyside some years ago and from that evening on, he set his heart on being a vet. He’s just about to start his first year at Liverpool.”

It was the nicest thing that could have happened and amazing to have, in a small way, helped to shape the future for Jarred.

It more than made up for my trauma of the book thief from Lancashire.

*The Yorkshire Vet, featuring Julian, returns to Channel 5 for Series 13 on September 7.