On an episode of ITV's Tenable, broadcast in April 2019, Britain's ten most popular breeds of cat were listed as (in decreasing order): British Shorthair, Ragdoll, Maine Coon, Siamese, Burmese, Persian, Oriental Shorthair, Birman, Russian and Bengal. Norwegian Forest was 12th (11th was not mentioned).
Wikipedia used to say that the Maine Coon was the largest breed of cat. It now describes it as "one of the largest domesticated cats".
Also according to Wikipedia, the Munchkin is "considered to be the original breed of dwarf cat." It's a relatively new breed, first documented in the 1940s but not officially recognised until the 1990s. Its official recognition remains controversial, due to concerns over its potential health and mobility issues.
The California Spangled was first bred in 1986, on the initiative of the Kenyan–British anthropologist Louis Leakey. He motivated the Hollywood scriptwriter Paul Arnold Casey Jr., with whom he worked in the 1970s, to breed a domestic cat resembling a small leopard in order to discourage people from wearing leopard skins.
The Chartreux is a large, muscular ('cobby') French breed, highly prized by farmers for its exceptional hunting ability. It was first mentioned in 1558 by Joachim du Bellay in a poem entitled Vers Français sur la mort d'un petit chat (French verse on the death of a little cat).
© Haydn Thompson 2019