A practising vet introduced me to Herriot. He told me they were like PG Wodehouse but with animals.

Surely the enjoyment they provided was that counts: why stress out over "authenticity."

(Banksy comes to mind for some reason: he vandalises property over various causes and no one questions his authenticity. Does anyone think he's suffered like the caricatures he depicts?)

I think they remain enjoyable even as fictional; I just would’ve preferred having them described that way to me at the start rather than the pretense of them being autobiographical.