Plymouth Rock Book

Plymouth Rock Book

VALE - LES DOWDLE

We are saddened to report the passing of Les Dowdle, 11 April 2008. Les will be forever remembered as a champion of Barred Plymouth Rocks, and his words and wisdom will live on in the book he authored two years ago.

April 2006

The authority for this book is Mr Les Dowdle, Australia's leading Plymouth Rock expert. Les is now retired from showing and breeding, having passed the age of ninety-one. Les has been interviewed and consulted extensively throughout the preparation period of this book.

Learn more about the history of Plymouth Rocks, showing, breeding for type and colour, management, buying and selling, genetics and judging. 169 pages of text, 16 pages of coloured plates and numerous black and white illustrations.

This book has something for everyone with in depth details of genetics, detailed illustrations of feathers and patterning, lots of good basic information for beginners, and plenty of more intricate explanations of matings, line breeding, show preparation and judging for more experienced breeders.

This book has more pages and covers more detail than previous titles as it has been adopted by the Plymouth Rock Club of Australia as its club manual.

$44 - Softcover edition. $8 postage within Australia. Overseas customers please email for your postage costs.

$90 - Hardcover edition. Now available, $11 postage within Australia. Please email for more details.

Book Review (from Australasian Poultry Vol. 17 No 4 Oct/Nov 2006)

Few would have the knowledge about Plymouth Rocks that Les Dowdle has accumulated from years spent breeding and judging them. This thick, informative book, one of the Doyens of Poultry series, is a fitting tribute to this dedicated, successful fancier.

The Plymouth Rock has 11 chapters plus an introduction and the usual mix of extras like glossary, bibliography and index. The book starts with details of how Les got into poultry, his highlights and the people who helped him. The history of Plymouth Rocks is detailed, the present Australian standard explained and followed by an in-depth discussion on the colour requirements of the different varieties. Chapters on breeding for type and colour follow while other chapters cover genetics, management, showing, buying and selling and what's involved in judging Rocks. Les has not held back and his views are very clearly stated.

A colour section iillustrates desirable points of the breed like heads and combs and feather markings and many black and white pictures are positioned throughout the text to highlight and explain breed points.

The Plymouth Rock is a mammoth read, 169 pages but an informative one. And because Les is so familiar and so experienced with Rocks for much of the book you could swear he was alongside the reader, talking out aloud. This is a book you will want to read even if you're not a Rock devotee, fanciers of Lew Dowdle's calibre are few and far between. A well written book and a fine Aussie fancier.