ABC Wednesday J is for Jocelynne Preciouse (1930 - 2010)

© 2009, Jocelynne Precious
It was in June that I learnt Jocelynne Precious had died suddenly. I knew her as the editor of the magazine Curlew. We first met in the mid-70s at meetings of the Yorkshire Federation of Small Presses. In more recent times she would ring me up about three times a year to talk about poets and small press matters. She never had a computer but would look things up on the Internet at the library in Harrogate.

Jocelynne studied under Clifford Ellis at Bath Academy of Art (aka "Corsham"). One of the art teachers there was William Scott who taught her painting. She was a member of Harrogate Writers' Circle.

Issue 64 of Curlew is a chapbook collection by Jocelynne called SWIMMING IN THE NORTH SEA.

trying to stay afloat
trying to make sense of it all
and on the straight horizon
a long slim boat

A number of the poems (like the one above) are reproduced from hand-written manuscript rather than typescript.


Issue 65 has work by Neil Leadbeater, Daniel Healy, Peter Asher, John Younger and A C Evans. The cover design is by Peter Precious.

Issue 66 was the 1st issue of Chaucer described as

An occasional publication covering literature and the Arts; philosophy; history & current affairs; genre fiction (science fiction/fantasy/crossover) humour; reviews, criticism, correspondence.

Referring to House of Fame, Steve Sneyd asks

"Did Chaucer indeed see the far future in this long narrative poem of 1379, its title, after all, derived from Ovid's Metamorphoses and thus backward, not forward, looking?"

Rodney Noon answers the question "Where do you write?" and there are poems by Anne Grant and Alan Hardy.

Patricia Prime reviewed her collection THE SURPRISING SUMMER for NHI Review where you can also find reviews of Curlew issues ##51, 52, 54, 56. Elsewhere on this blog are reviews of ##57, 58 and also ##59, 60

A stalwart of the small press scene since the 70s, she will be much missed.

For more J posts visit ABC Wednesday.