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The British Shorthair is the pedigree version of the traditional British domestic cat, with a distinctively stocky body, thick coat, and broad face. The most familiar colour variant is the "British Blue", with a solid grey-blue coat, copper-coloured eyes, and a medium-sized tail. The breed has also been bred in a wide range of other colours and patterns, including tabby and colourpoint.
It ranks among the oldest known cat landraces. This ancient British landrace was selectively bred into one of the first pedigreed cat breeds at the end of the 19th century, and today holds full recognition status in all major cat registries. It remains the most popular pedigreed breed in its native country, as registered by the UK's Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF). Half of all kittens registered with the GCCF each year are British Shorthairs, making the British the most popular pedigree cat in the UK.
The breed's relatively calm temperament make it a frequent media star, notably as the inspiration for John Tenniel's famous illustration of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) profile reads: "When gracelessness is observed, the British Shorthair is duly embarrassed, quickly recovering with a 'Cheshire cat smile'.
The British Shorthair's coat is one of the breed's defining features. It is very dense, the texture being plush rather than woolly or fluffy, with a firm, "crisp" pile that breaks noticeably over the cat's body as it moves.
Although the British Blue remains the most familiar variant, British Shorthairs have been developed in many other colours and patterns. White, black, blue, red, cream and—most recently—cinnamon and fawn are accepted by all official standards. The GCCF, FIFe and TICA also accept chocolate and its dilute lilac, disallowed in the CFA standard. All base colours can be affected by the silver and golden genes in the smoke, shaded and tipped variants. These coat colours are present in either a solid or one of the four acknowledged tabby patterns (classic, mackerel, spotted, and ticked tabby). All colours and patterns also occur in the variants resulting from the combination with colourpoint, bicolour (white spotting) and/or tortoiseshell.
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