The English Setter Association

The English Setter 'A Gentleman By Nature'

Hello everyone…
                I’m Nina, and I hope you will shortly be reading the book I have written about our seven English Setters who live with my husband and me in a remote part of the Lake District.   Our first pair we called Flossie and Fenella, and the family grew from there. 

                Me? Well I grew up loving books and animals (especially E. Setters) and constantly wishing myself in the Lakes.  A branch of the family lived at Windermere and it always felt like home. Writing stories was my favourite past time and the teacher used to read them out to the class. Later in life I took time out from the family business to attend Lancaster University and somehow left with an honours degree in philosophy –and due to my tutor (He-who-must-be-Obeyed) a renewed passion for writing stories!  Reality then intruded and I was harnessed back into the business where I work to this day. 

                 However the twin addictions of writing and Setters refused to go away, and our move to the Lakes some twenty years ago provided ideal conditions for both.  Inevitably our first two babes passed over the Rainbow Bridge, Fenella at the age of ten and Flossie who, despite the onset of Addisons disease, trotted on to the grand age of nearly fourteen. ‘No more’ I vowed, as many of you must have done whilst feeling the awful devastation of loss. Jim, bless him, had other ideas and the true story of how Flossie and Fenella the Second arrived gave me the title story of the book ‘Memories of a Moon Map’.

                We were devastated anew when, at the age of twelve, they went to join their name-sakes.  Litter siblings D’Arcy and Destiny then whirled through our life like a hurricane. But it was Ben who changed my life.  You can read his story, and about those who have followed on: his son, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Strangely enough, it was through my growing friendship with the lovely Lorna that my Setter family began to mysteriously expand! (Kennel name withheld to protect the guilty!).  Seriously, we owe her so much for the happiness her lovely Setters have brought to our lives. Thank you Lorna, you mended my breaking heart.

                About the book: this isn’t a ‘how to’ book with chapters on rearing, feeding and showing etc, but rather an insight into how Setters may see their world.  I actually play a very small part in the telling! The overall narrator is Ben, a Setter I shall not actually identify but who is known and loved by many of you.  In relating the adventures of the pack, Ben and his progeny will share with you insights into Setter hearts, minds and souls in true storytelling tradition.  All the incidents in the book were inspired by real events, but were taken over by the ‘characters’  and being Setters - well, anything can happen!  This then is their book, a book about Setters told by Setters to keep the Pack Chronicles alive. So in addition to their daily exploits, be prepared for their myths and legends and a sprinkling of Setter magic!

Probably the best way to give you the flavour is to offer a little taster. This is how the book opens:

“Hi, pleased to meet you….

                My name is Ben and I am an English setter and famous Show Champion of my time. Although I passed over the Rainbow Bridge some years ago, because of a love stronger than death I’m allowed to tell my story. Long before I came to live with our human Pack Leaders (they are known as the Alpha-Pair) they gave a home to my ancestors and then to my family after me so I’m entrusted with organising their adventures too. You see my time span now is different to yours; I can travel to and fro through the years and talk with those who died before I was born and also those who followed on. Left to themselves English Setters are an unruly lot, and without me to organise them you would soon be lost in the tangle of their tales. I have to keep an eye on them too because some of their adventures are rather scary, and as Setters are known for being O.T.T. I can’t have them frightening you to death! I admit Grey Pelt is a tad Serious, but as he also does Ancient Trickster nothing is as it seems. Who or what is Grey Pelt? I hear you wondering. Sorry, I can only say he haunts Setter dreams and the pages of this book, but you’ll have to read on and find him for yourself…. 

                …Now I’m going to take you back to the beginning to meet Flossie and Fenella the First, the Founder Members of our Pack.  I shall begin by telling you the story of how the two met, and of Flossie’s perilous night on Pennystone Rock…”

In conclusion,. I hope you will enjoy reading this book as much as I have enjoyed writing it; and it has been a joy, because despite the tears I shed along the way, the memories also brought lots of smiles and laughter. I hope too that at those sad times we all go through this little book will be a ray of comfort and hope. As Ben says: