Interview: My road from James Herriot country to Australia

GROWING up on the same street as Alf Wight, Ali Lewis had no idea what an important part the James Herriot author would have on her life.

Ali, who this month became a published author, was best friends with Alf Wight’s granddaughter Emma. Little did she now that she would end up playing her best friend’s mum in the hit TV series All Creatures Great and Small. Ali was just 13 when she landed the role of James Herriot’s daughter Rosie, who was based on Alf Wight’s own daughter of the same name.

“I knew the Wights and grew up living a few doors down from Emma,” says Ali.

“We used to play in her granddad’s garden a lot – he lived next door to Emma. But I honestly didn’t think at the time that I’d get the part of Rosie, so I didn’t think to tell the family about it. They were so happy for me though when I got the part.”

Ali was one of a handful of girls put forward for the role by her school in Thirsk. But she told hardly anyone about going for the part, including best friend Emma.

Ali, now 34, has fond memories of her childhood in the quiet village of Thirlby, near Thirsk, and says she always thought of Alf as her friend’s granddad first, and the James Herriot author second.

“He was a lovely man, very modest and down to earth,” says Ali. “He was a star, obviously – everybody had heard of James Herriot. But fame didn’t affect him, and to me he was Emma’s granddad.

“He would take us to Helmsley for an ice cream or we’d go for a walk with his dog, Brodie, a Border Terrier that I remember liked to run off quite a lot.”

Ali says at the time she didn’t think too much about appearing in the cult television serious about vet James Herriot.

“It was fine, I don’t think I really thought about it too much. It was more a case of, ‘here’s a script, learn it’. I wasn’t too conscious of it really.”

And it’s clear Ali loved the experience of being on set.

“I had a wonderful time,” she says. “The cast and crew were fabulous, and very patient with me as I’d never done anything like that before. It was really good fun.”

Something about growing up only a stone’s throw from one of Yorkshire’s most famous and best-loved writers must have rubbed off on Ali, who says she always wanted to be a writer. And it was experience of a very different kind of farm to the ones she frequented in North Yorkshire that inspired her first novel, Everybody Jam, published this month by Andersen Press.

At one time, she did consider pursuing a career in acting, but she describes watching herself on TV as “really uncomfortable”.

However, any dreams of writing had to be put on hold when, aged 16, Ali was in a sledging accident near Thirlby and had to spend three months in hospital in Wakefield.

“It resulted in some quite series damage to my bones but luckily it didn’t sever my spinal cord,” says Ali. “I still can’t feel certain toes or areas of my feet but I’m okay – I was very, very lucky.”

Ali says the incident did affect her A-level results, but she went on to get her qualifications and gain a place at the University of Sunderland to study for a degree in Communication Studies.

From there, Ali worked as a journalist in the North East for five years before setting off on a round the world trip in 2002.

She travelled extensively, including India, Nepal, Tibet, Thailand, Laos, Taiwan, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.

“I arrived in Australia and, by coincidence, a friend of mine was also in the Northern Territories.

“I sent him an email and he emailed straight back saying he’d been working in a school in the outback and knew a family with a cattle station who were looking for a house girl.

“I called the family and discovered they were 200 miles from Alice Springs, and that was it really – they drove out to pick me up and I spent a month working there.”

It was this experience that gave Ali the inspiration for the setting for Everybody Jam.

“The isolation at the cattle station and the vastness of the dessert was unbelievable,” says Ali.

“We consider some of our villages in rural North Yorkshire to be quite isolated, but it’s just on such a big scale out there. It kind of blew my mind a bit.

“I only got a glimpse of it really. For children growing up there it’s a very different life to that in England, and it just struck a chord somehow.”

Ali returned home in January 2003 and started writing the book later that year. She also changed her job to work in Public Relations to give her more time for writing.

“It was early days,” she says. “And the setting is really the only thing that has remained in the book.”

Everybody Jam, which takes its name from the outback slang for apricot jam – because everybody likes it, is aimed at the young adult fiction market. Set on a cattle station in the Australian outback, it follows the story of Danny Dawson and his family, and the annual “muster”, which is the biggest event of the year.

Dealing with issues such as teenage pregnancy, the loss of a child and coming-of-age, the plot follows the family as they hire a house girl, a wide-eyed English backpacker, to help out. She doesn’t know what she’s let herself in for – but, it turns out, neither do they.

Ali did some of the writing for Everybody Jam in the shed at the back of her parents’ garden in Thirlby, although it proved quite a contrast to the Australian desert.

“It was winter and very cold, despite a couple of heaters,” she says.

“My grandma knitted me some fingerless gloves to write in, and I put photos of my travels on the wall above the computer so I could remember the desert and how hot it was.”

On finishing to book she contacted at least 20 agents, and after a few rejections the manuscript sat in the attic at her home for about a year.

She says she only discovered it again when she was moving house.

“I thought, ‘Am I going to chuck this in the recycling or try again?’ I didn’t have time to write a proper letter or to research agents. I just picked a few at random and then forgot about it. And, bizarrely, three of them came back to say they were interested.”

Ali got a Dutch publisher first, followed last year by her UK publisher, Andersen Press.

“There were lots of rejections along the way but I’m absolutely thrilled it’s being published,” says Ali. “It’s been a long process. It all feels a bit surreal really.”

Ali is currently working on a second book, which has involved lots of travel – her second love.

During her most recent trip she attempted to scale two of South America’s highest peaks – Aconcagua, in Argentina – the highest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere, and Ojos del Salado in Chile – the world’s highest active volcano.

When back in Yorkshire, if the weather’s half decent, she loves going out walking and making the most of the countryside near home – she says it’s a great antidote to writer’s block.

Ali has also remained good friends with the Wights, including Emma, who now lives in London, and Rosie, who still lives a few doors down from Ali’s family in Thirlby. Rosie says the whole Wight family is very proud of what Ali has achieved, first in All Creatures Great and Small and now as an author.

She adds: “My dad was always very fond of Ali. I’m sure he would have been capped to death that she’d written a book.”

Everybody Jam by Ali Lewis (Andersen Press £6.99) To order a copy from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop call free on 0800 0153232 or go online at • www.yorkshirepostbookshop.co.uk. Postage and packing is £2.75.

ALI LEWIS PROFILE

• Ali Lewis was born on March 21, 1976, and is the second of three children.

• She appeared in the final series of All Creatures Great and Small in the episodes A Cat In Hull’s Chance and Out With The New.

• She studied Communication Studies at the University of Sunderland.

• Her book Everybody Jam was rejected by at least 20 agents before being accepted.

• One of Ali’s favourite places in Yorkshire is the countryside near her home. She says: “I don’t think there’s a view to rival the one from the top of Thirlby Bank.”

• All Creatures Great and Small ran from 1978-1990.