Book Review by Bryant Freeman

When the 2nd Duke of Newcastle, lord and master of Clumber Park, obtained his original breeding stock of “this peculiar race of Flushers” from France, supposedly in the mid-1760s and which his head gamekeeper, William Mansell, would breed “unmixed” for some 30 years no doubt did either in their wildest dreams suspect the fame these “cockflushers” would eventually acquire. When the good Duke died in 1794 and his faithful gamekeeper 12 years later, these white spaniels had still not yet acquired even the name of Clumber Spaniels. But today one wonders how many rare breeds have been the subject of so many books. Already in 1912 James Farrow published almost the first book limited to only one breed, Clumbers, and today in my library are no fewer than 30 books just on Clumbers not to mention 46 years of the Clumber journal. And now we are privileged with even another great Clumber book. 

The CSCA has eight Life Members, based on service to the breed and not years in the club, but it has reserved its highest title of Honorary Member for only one living person, Australia’s Jan Irving. Jan is author of the encyclopedic White Spaniel the result of 15 years of loving labor and judged one of the 10 best breed books ever published as well as of three other books on Clumbers. And for 26 years she edited the international Clumber Spaniel Correspondence magazine, part of an Irving family com mitment of 62 years to Clumber Spaniels! 
Now she has edited the hardcover, large format, glossy paper, 320 page book The World of Clumbers in the New Millennium 2000–2015, published in December 2019 as part of a series of books on rare breeds under the general editorship of Bas Bosch, by the BBPress, Netherlands (€75/US $81.85, plus shipping). 

Lavishly illustrated throughout, it contains 730 color pictures, many fullpage. This is indeed a collective work, with contributions from 85 “Clumberphiles” from 15 countries, including 28 from the United States. Approximately a third of the volume presents Clumbers in their major performance activities, with the remainder detailing Clumbers in twenty representative countries, arranged alphabetically. 
Fittingly, this true celebration of Clumberdom opens with a chapter on the most beloved for so many of us: the elderly Clumber. Lovingly recounted are the life stories of 19 Clumbers reaching the age of from 15 to even 16½ years.

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