Jocelyn Brooke (1908 – 1966): a Kent author to celebrate.
The author, naturalist and poet Jocelyn Brooke passed away sixty years ago in 1966 at the age of 57. Perhaps his work deserves specially to be celebrated by us in Kent and London, for JB was born in Sandgate, Folkestone and much of his best acclaimed work centers on the natural world of the Elham Valley where botany (in particular, orchids) inspired him to write some of his most lyrical and mystical descriptive prose. Meanwhile in more autobiographical vein JB wrote of his childhood, of serving in the army and of various experiences that hovered between reality and fantasy – the latter sometimes verging upon the supernatural or at least resembling a dream or nightmare.
Cray 150 is delighted to have published in 2024 a short biography of Jocelyn Brooke by local author Phil Babbs entitled From Clambercrown to the Goose Cathedral ISBN 978-0-9955759-9-8.
Now at the start of 2026 we are further pleased to inform that Phil Babbs is editing and publishing via the Nailbourne Press a quarterly Jocelyn Brooke Journal. In the editorial to Issue 1, Phil explains: ‘There are many Brooke-ophiles who, like me, are adding to the collective knowledge of JB’s life and work.’
Accordingly, for the Journal, Phil is gathering for readers’ enjoyment a veritable Brooke bouquet of extracts from his books and poems; biographical snippets; criticism; photos; etc. We reprint below a small selection of items that have appeared in the first two issues of the Journal.
The author, naturalist and poet Jocelyn Brooke passed away sixty years ago in 1966 at the age of 57. Perhaps his work deserves specially to be celebrated by us in Kent and London, for JB was born in Sandgate, Folkestone and much of his best acclaimed work centers on the natural world of the Elham Valley where botany (in particular, orchids) inspired him to write some of his most lyrical and mystical descriptive prose. Meanwhile in more autobiographical vein JB wrote of his childhood, of serving in the army and of various experiences that hovered between reality and fantasy – the latter sometimes verging upon the supernatural or at least resembling a dream or nightmare.
Cray 150 is delighted to have published in 2024 a short biography of Jocelyn Brooke by local author Phil Babbs entitled From Clambercrown to the Goose Cathedral ISBN 978-0-9955759-9-8.
Now at the start of 2026 we are further pleased to inform that Phil Babbs is editing and publishing via the Nailbourne Press a quarterly Jocelyn Brooke Journal. In the editorial to Issue 1, Phil explains: ‘There are many Brooke-ophiles who, like me, are adding to the collective knowledge of JB’s life and work.’
Accordingly, for the Journal, Phil is gathering for readers’ enjoyment a veritable Brooke bouquet of extracts from his books and poems; biographical snippets; criticism; photos; etc. We reprint below a small selection of items that have appeared in the first two issues of the Journal.
From: Jocelyn Brooke Journal, Issue 1 (The Nailbourne Press, 2025)
‘The haunted landscape [of East Kent] I habitually walk, or imagine, is a shallow valley which is generally marked by one very evidently present absence: that of its river, the Nailbourne. The Nailbourne is an intermittent chalk stream which appears at irregular intervals.
‘… Even when it runs, the little river is not nowadays truly known, not really perceived for what it is. A fifteenth-century chronicle (of the first thirteen years of Edward IV) declares it to be one of the five traditional woe-waters of England, whose flowing presages national disaster.’
A short extract from an article by Dr Simon Wilson where later the author brings in that Jocelyn Brooke ‘[was a] ‘long-time observer of the Nailbourne … Bishopsbourne, the village lapped by the woe-waters where he spent many years, was for him a very English and very middle-class Garden of Eden when he was a child.’
From: Jocelyn Brooke Journal, Issue 2 (The Nailbourne Press, 2025)
‘To go on a country walk with Uncle Bernard, as JB was known to me, was a joy. He knew the names of all the wild flowers, and often their medicinal qualities too. When I was a teenager, he decided to broaden my horizons by taking me to London for an Italian lunch at Bertorelli in Soho. Afterwards we went to the Fitzroy pub nearby, where the clientele were mostly writers and artists.'
A short extract from a memoir by JB’s nephew John Urmston.
If you would like to enquire about the Jocelyn Brooke Journal the contact e-mail is [email protected] - or please contact us at Cray 150 e-mail [email protected]
‘The haunted landscape [of East Kent] I habitually walk, or imagine, is a shallow valley which is generally marked by one very evidently present absence: that of its river, the Nailbourne. The Nailbourne is an intermittent chalk stream which appears at irregular intervals.
‘… Even when it runs, the little river is not nowadays truly known, not really perceived for what it is. A fifteenth-century chronicle (of the first thirteen years of Edward IV) declares it to be one of the five traditional woe-waters of England, whose flowing presages national disaster.’
A short extract from an article by Dr Simon Wilson where later the author brings in that Jocelyn Brooke ‘[was a] ‘long-time observer of the Nailbourne … Bishopsbourne, the village lapped by the woe-waters where he spent many years, was for him a very English and very middle-class Garden of Eden when he was a child.’
From: Jocelyn Brooke Journal, Issue 2 (The Nailbourne Press, 2025)
‘To go on a country walk with Uncle Bernard, as JB was known to me, was a joy. He knew the names of all the wild flowers, and often their medicinal qualities too. When I was a teenager, he decided to broaden my horizons by taking me to London for an Italian lunch at Bertorelli in Soho. Afterwards we went to the Fitzroy pub nearby, where the clientele were mostly writers and artists.'
A short extract from a memoir by JB’s nephew John Urmston.
If you would like to enquire about the Jocelyn Brooke Journal the contact e-mail is [email protected] - or please contact us at Cray 150 e-mail [email protected]