The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, in Fact and Fancy [Hardcover]

Barbara Garnett-Wilson (Author), Roy A. Wilson (Editor), Kenneth Ottinger (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2007

With delightful wit and expert insight, The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, in Fact and Fancy, happily explores the make-up of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel from nose to tip-of-tail, and its heritage from nearly a millennium before Christ to its meteoric rise in popularity today.

This internationally acclaimed book has won many literary awards, including the Maxwell award for BEST BREED BOOK OF THE YEAR (2007), as selected by the Dog Writers Association of America, and an IPPY award presented for Excellence in Independent Publishing by the Independent Publisher association.

Uniquely comprehensive, this must-have book is an unblushing tribute to its beloved subject. Written by Barbara Garnett-Wilson, a longtime Cavalier breed specialist, The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, in Fact and Fancy is as much a celebration as it is a reference, written with the hope of serving well the many who love this delightful breed.

This remarkable book, often called The Cavalier Bible, is entirely in full-color, with 15 comprehensive chapters totally nearly 300 pages. It boasts more than 450 full-color photos, paintings, and illustrations, displayed in a large format (10 x 10.5 inches), perfect for reference or coffee table.

To quote Matthew H. Stander in a special Westminster edition of Dog News magazine (February 9, 2007): Do yourself a favor and look into buying a copy of this masterful book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Rarely do breed books demand a review. However, there are always exceptions...and certainly Barbara Garnett-Wilsons incredibly beautiful The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, in Fact and Fancy is a case in point!

I cannot recall a more beautifully published and presented breed tome. Every photograph is in full-color...the quality of the print job is so high, it boggles the mind...and by and large the photographs used are of museum-type importance.

The added plus is the overall coverage and content presented by the author, who is an acknowledged and recognized authority. Here, too, Mrs. Garnett-Wilson exceeds all expectations. This book is simply in a class by itself and makes all other efforts...pale in comparison. It deserves all the praise being heaped upon it!

Do yourself a favor and look into buying a copy of this masterful book. --Excerpts from a review by Matthew H. Stander, special Westminster edition of Dog News magazine, February 9, 2007

THE CAVALIER KING CHARLES SPANIEL, IN FACT AND FANCY is as much a work of art as a reference, which abundantly deserves room on every Cavalier owners coffee table... solid, relevant content, written elegantly and presented in a beautiful package.... Consider it and its companion volume, The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel: A Tribute in Art, essential to your Cavalier library. --From Dog World magazine, November 2007 edition, by ALLAN REZNIK Celebrity Judge on the hit CBS series Greatest American Dog and Editor, Dog World, Dog Fancy, and Dogs in Review magazines

I had firmly believed the subject of Cavaliers had been well and truly covered and that there was little room for yet another publication. But how wrong could I be! The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in Fact and Fancy by Barbara Garnett-Wilson is an absolutely excellent volume, covering virtually every aspect of our wonderful breed.

Beautifully laid out, the book takes an in-depth look at so many facets of the Cavalier, many of which have never been covered by previous publications. Highly informative and comprehensive..with an enormous amount of research.... The author s love and enthusiasm for the breed shine through in the sheer exuberance of her wonderful writing style.

Over the years I have accumulated quite a number of excellent Cavalier books, but this one most surely takes pride of place. It is a book you simply cannot put down. --The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club (UK) e-Newsletter, October 2007, by Tina and Dennis Homes

About the Author

A native of Cheltenham, England, educated in Canada and France, Barbara Garnett-Wilson has lived in the United States since 1965.

The author s first book, The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in North America (1998) sold out quickly and is now considered a collectors item.

Then in 2007, Barbara Garnett-Wilson penned The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, in Fact and Fancy, which went on to win many awards, including the Maxwell Award for Best Breed Book of the Year (2007) as presented by the Dog Writers Association of America. Later that year, this book also won an IPPY Award, awarded for Excellence in Independent Publishing, by the Independent Publisher association. Also written by Barbara, along with her husband Roy, is a third book, The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel: A Tribute in Art, which was nominated as Best Anthology of the Year, by Dog Writers Association of America in 2007.

Breeder, exhibitor, and breed-specialty judge, the author lives with her husband and their Cavaliers of all ages, on picturesque Hood Canal in Washington State. Her Laughing Cavalier Kennels has, for over thirty years, imported or produced some remarkable Cavaliers, most notably the first Cavalier to win Best of Breed and a Toy Group placement at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, as well as the first two English-champion Cavaliers to be shown in the United States.

In 2004, Dog Fancy magazine honored the author s Laughing Cavalier Kennels as one of its five Kennels of Distinction in America.

Mrs. Garnett-Wilson is a member of Book Publishers Northwest, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, National Association of Women Writers, and the Dog Writers Association of America.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 287 pages
• Publisher: Cascade Publications; First edition (January 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966298519
• ISBN-13: 978-0966298512
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 10.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #611,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece, June 3, 2008

By 

B. Jones - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, in Fact and Fancy (Hardcover)

This is an absolutely fantastic book. I highly recommend it to anyone even the slightest bit interested in the breed. The photographs alone make it well worth purchasing, but Barbara Garnett-Wilson has also packed decades worth of experience into this volume. She has thoroughly researched the origins and history of the breed and has included spectacular examples of artwork from across the ages. This, coupled with practical information on every aspect of cavalier ownership from breeding to show (how exactly do you keep those long beautiful coats shiny and smelling fresh?...lots of product info and links included) makes it a must have for cavalier owners and potential owners alike.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The FINEST Cavalier Book Possible - Winner of the 2007 Maxwell for Best Breed Book of the Year!, October 27, 2008

By 

Doug - Haydn Fan (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, in Fact and Fancy (Hardcover)

"The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in Fact and Fiction" is one of the great modern dog books, and certainly it was no surprise when this magnificent work won a Maxwell award for best breed book given by the Dog Writers Association of America at their annual banquet the night before the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. This is the third book by Cavalier-breeder and author Barbara Garnett-Wilson, a long time American breeder of winning Cavalier King Charles Spaniels at "Laughing Cavaliers", including the first Cavalier to win Best of Breed and a Toy Group Placement at the Westminster Kennel Dog Club Show. A well-respected show judge herself, Garnett-Wilson has served and currently is President of the Western Region of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club of the USA, where she has tirelessly championed her beloved breed. (Ms Garnett-Wilson's earlier book, The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in North America, is itself one of the best books on the breed.) Yet in this 2007 work Garnett-Wilson outdoes not only her own excellent previous work, but has produced a major lasting book on this happy and charming and most loving companion, the delightful dog that is the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

Most dog books have their strengths and weaknesses: authors may know their breed backwards and forwards, but lack skills at writing. Some dog books offer well-written text without covering important subjects, or the author's work fails to utilize top quality reproductions. Dog books often use photos as mere window-dressing - a particular problem with such photogenic dogs as Cavalier King Charles Spaniels! And even if requirements for an excellent and helpful book are achieved, there remains certain intangibles, intangibles that mark a superior imaginative presentation. In Garnett-Wilson's work these often missing intagibles are everywhere, they literally can be found in super-abundance. Although on the surface her book seems at first yet another - admittedly glorious - example of a coffee table book, the reality is that this book, like the breed itself, is far more than a pretty face. This is a serious work filled to bursting with deeply informed experience founded on three decades of working closely with these dogs, listening and learning from the top breeders, and promoting the positives of this wonderful dog, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, to many new fans.

One of the many virtues of Garnett-Wilson as author is not only fine writing skills put at the service of her vast experience with the breed, here unfolded in a exquisite series of chapters on all the basics of breeding and raising Cavaliers, but a remarkable generosity shown her fellow Cavalier lovers. Throughout the book are scores and scores of photos and stories highlighting other breeders and owners and their dogs. Rather than pack her book with photos of her own dogs, and she has had hundreds of dogs, and a limitless supply of photos, Garnett-Wilson instead opts to showcase the full range and richness of her beloved Cavaliers through a wide-ranging multitude of dogs and owners.

The book's chapters all offer a balanced match between text and images. Readers should be aware the book's lavish illustrations are not window dressing, but are frequently perfect visual guides for the author's narrative. The chapters on breeding, pregnancy and whelping, the nursery, and grooming couldn't be bettered. Garnett-Wilson also has the most up-to-date news on Cavalier health and wellness.

A list of the chapters goes as follows,

THE WONDER OF CAVALIERS
A HISTORY OF THE CAVALIER KING CHARLES SPANIEL
CHOOSING A CAVALIER
THE NEW CAVALIER PUPPY
A GALLERY OF CAVALIER KING CHARLES SPANIELS
THE VERSATILE CAVALIER
THE CAVALIER KING CHARLES SPANIEL IN ART
UNDERSTANDING THE BREED STANDARDS
THE CHALLENGE OF BREEDING
PREGNANCY AND WHELPING
THE CAVALIER NURSERY
GOLDEN OLDIES
TRAINING AND SHOWING THE CAVALIER KING CHARLES SPANIEL
GROOMING THE CAVALIER KING CHARLES SPANIEL
CAVALIER HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Appendices, contact information, favorite products, artistic credits,
I love my Cavalier contract.
Glossary
Index - a very fine one running to several pages of fine print.


The book is filled with over 300 color photos, including several reproductions also found in the author's book, "The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel: A Tribute in Art", published simultaneously. (This other book contains a very high standard of art reproductions - these are easily superior to most of what I see in my field of Art History. This companion work also was nominated for a prestigious Maxwell Award by the Dog Writers Association of America in 2007, an unheard of achievement for one author!)

Any Cavalier owner has to see "The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel In Fact and Fancy"! If you can find one for sale - grab it! You'll have a treasure that does justice to the wonder that is these bouncy adorable heart-throbs with spirit! As the author writes in her preface, "Enjoy your Cavalier. And if this is your first, don't be surprised if she's the first of many. They are a bit like potato chips. You can't, it seems, have just one."

Should the Amazon site listings be temporarily out of the book it may still be available by contacting Laughing Cavaliers at their website, or through the publisher, Cascade Publishers.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book on the breed, January 8, 2009

By 

Mother of 7 book lovers (alaska) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, in Fact and Fancy (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful book on the breed. It is what I needed, and the whole family has enjoyed looking at the pictures. Very well done. I have read several books on this breed, and own three books. This one is undoubtedly the best!